Taylor Blake Ward Talks Angels Prospects and Future

August 14, 2025

Taylor Blake Ward is both a great prospect analyst and longtime friend of the site. He’s a lead writer with Baseball America and worth the cost of the subscription. He’s also a great follow on Twitter and wrote a really good book on legendary scout Bob Fontaine, who signed most of the Angels greatest players.

TBW was kind enough to chat with me ahead of Baseball America releasing their updated prospect rankings list. As always, he covered a lot of ground and threw out some names that aren’t on our radars.

I hope you enjoy the interview, give him a follow, and support his work.

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Super Member

tanana40

7 hours ago

Thanks for this. The Nelson Rada conversation was a good one. I would take a Dendard Span in CF.

Super Member

HalosFanForLife

8 hours ago

Great interview Jeff. Thank you.

13stoploss

8 hours ago

I don’t think I’ve commented in years… maybe even several years before HH got taken over. That said, I’m a regular (weekday) daily reader for over 15 years…

Can I get a transcript?

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Jeff Joiner

2 minutes ago

Reply to 13stoploss

I have not typed a transcript for this interview.

Sorry.

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John Henry Weitzel

8 hours ago

I am still amused that we have Taylor Ward and Taylor Blake Ward.

Super Member

RexFregosi

2 hours ago

Reply to John Henry Weitzel

https://www.espn.com/nhl/player/_/id/4781650/taylor-ward
Hockey version plays for the Kings.
I think there’s a factory near Azusa that makes them.

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Super Member

Turk's Teeth

9 hours ago

Loved the banter about MLB Pipeline vs Baseball America rankings (I do prefer the latter, but look at MLBP as a “mainstream consensus” view worth listening to.)

I want to hold out hope that Ryan Johnson can become a starter, but agree that the greater likelihood is he’s a long reliever who spot starts occasionally. Longenhagen of Fangraphs holds the same view, and it’s good to get a strong confirm here that Johnson has been shut down due to arm fatigue, not just proactive innings management.

Was not smart in the long run to let him go a complete game just for the giggles in Tri-City. No starter is going to say no to that opportunity, but now he’s on the shelf.

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FungoAle

8 hours ago

Reply to Turk's Teeth

Used to subscribe to BBA and Callis was one of their prospect gurus. When he moved over to MLB was a let down but he’s helped establish credibility there, I think. But BBA is deep in the weeds which I love. I prefer Fangraphs over Pipeline but under BBA.

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Turk's Teeth

8 hours ago

Reply to FungoAle

I’m repeating myself a bit, but I prefer Eric’s scouting reports at FG to Mayo/Callis at MLBP, but part of that is that Longenhagen is just in the stands more often directly observing prospects, and he doesn’t pull many punches when he thinks a guy has a couple tools but swing defects that make him low probability.

The problem with Fangraphs is they are so underresourced in their MiLB coverage. It’s often just Eric and an assistant/intern, so you get capsule reviews written all the way back in fall of 2024, and then quick re-ranks on their Big Board. Five years ago you had Eric and Kiley McDaniel on the same team, with much more regular updates and depth of coverage. Now Kiley is leading ESPN’s coverage, and both publications are a little thinner as a result.

I considered canceling my sub to FG after this year’s draft cycle debacle, when they failed to publish half the features they promised and only updated the draft board hours before the actual draft, but reconsidered. Indie pubs like FG are already struggling – and subscriber flight isn’t going to make it any better.

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FungoAle

7 hours ago

Reply to Turk's Teeth

Copy, yeah there has been an exodus at FG. That’s too bad. I remember Kiley before he got poached.

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Turk's Teeth

9 hours ago

Great interview – thanks for this. You can probably tell that TBW and I are almost completely aligned on our view of the system and the recent draft returns, and share the PoV that the Angels second draft day was more palatable than the first. (I swear we’re not the same person!)

I also think this erases any misconceptions (such as one voiced in yesterday’s threads) that Baseball America knows shit-all about the Angels farm and their Top 30 is crap, given TBW is one of BA’s essential contributors to Angels minor league evaluations. There aren’t many who have have a better 360 view of the system, and more importantly, he has a good view of other systems as well, so can grade Angels prospects in context.

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Jeff Joiner

9 hours ago

Reply to Turk's Teeth

I can attest you are two different people with similar perspectives. A conversation between you two would be quite interesting to overhear.

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FungoAle

9 hours ago

Thanks Jeff for putting in the calories, good listen.

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Jeff Joiner

9 hours ago

Reply to FungoAle

Glad you enjoyed it.

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Eric_in_Portland

9 hours ago

This is depressing but that’s what happens when you botch day 1 of the draft and the only excitement you gave about your farm system is it’s no longer the worst.

It feels like the best we can say about any of our minor leaguers is this guy or that might be a useful piece, might be a role guy, might be a mid-rotation starter

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Jeff Joiner

9 hours ago

Reply to Eric_in_Portland

The farm is improving but in a very lopsided way. It went from having no pitching to having no bats.

I’m very interested to see how future drafts shake out. Perry has gone pretty big on high upside high school arms in back to back drafts now. Ideally a few of them will develop and be in High A and AA by the 2027 draft, in which case Perry could start adding college bats to those levels and finally have a complete system.

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Turk's Teeth

8 hours ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

He could also trade some of his prep pitching largesse for closer-to-the-show bats if he was more Dodgers/Mariners like (two teams who actually trade prospects for prospects creatively).

I think it’s more likely that he is going to use that pitching depth in the next year or two on short-term MLB contracts, because we know who the owner is, and we know who listens faithfully to that owner.