Welcome to beautiful mid July edition of Weekend Links. I hope you had a great 4th of July and skipped every second of the Red Sox sweep of the Halos, although it did move us closer to the first pick in next year’s draft.
The biggest news to drop this week was Mike Trout being announced as a starter for the 2026 All Star Game that will played in Philly.
That afternoon I walked through the tunnels, out the Angels bullpen, and onto the field to catch the end of batting practice. Standing just to my right signing autographs for some little VIP group was none other than Michael Nelson Trout. And he spoke to me. It was epic and out of instinct I shook his hand and said “thank you and congrats” and he shook my hand and said “thanks.” I think I’ve held my cool pretty well around Detmers, Adell, and Meckler but I’m confident I looked like a total fanboy when talking to Trout.
Anyway, I wrote this piece with a quote from Trout and others quotes I got from Suzuki and O’Hoppe.
It was a great night as I hung out with Clyde Wright in the media room and heard stories I could not print here and also did a little media thing with Trent Rush and some of the Angels scholarships recipients. Then I met AngelsChamps and his awesome son for a couple of innings.
On Wednesday, Mike Trout was activated and the team cut Walton. The All Star wasted little time in making his presence known.
All of the talk behind the scenes is about the front office shakeup. Press people and Angels staffers are really intrigued by the fact Arte Moreno did not attend Mozeliak’s press conference or issue a statement.
Arte Moreno staying away from the team is the best thing possible. Hopefully his silence and absence mean Mozeliak and Jolly are actually running the team.
How can Mo right the ship? He apparently gave Molly a 100 day plan with the understanding he can walk away if it is not followed. The first step, of course, is to evaluate who to keep and how to cut.
Denzer Guzman is a good place to start. Can he finally solve the Angels third base problem?
I watched Guzman up close in batting practice and his hands are silky smooth and very quick. He stands out even among other MLB’ers.
Just to break up the text, here is video of Jo Adell mashing in Texas. Adell is a good dude, but should be traded if the Angels can get any value for him.
And the Angels just might have something in Walbert Urena whose sinker is a truly plus pitch.
Of course, adding talent up and down the organization will be key.
Mock drafts suggest a new strategy might be on the table for the Angels.
Paging Turk’s Teeth to chime in here, but based on what the mock drafts are saying it looks like the highest upside high schoolers will be drafted prior to the Angels selection at 12 which means a solid college player.
Let’s take a look at the mocks:
FanGraphs has the Angels taking a college lefty pitcher and I like their logic behind the pick.
Sports Illustrated has the Angels taking a second baseman with a really polished hit tool. That sounds familiar.
FanSided has the Angels taking the same second baseman.
ESPN ranked their top 250 prospects and I think this guide will be handy as you ramp up for and watch the draft.
I’ll go ahead and make my pick. I think with the best bats off the board some college pitching falls down to 12 and the Angels are able to select a polished college arm. I also don’t think Mozeliak trusts the scouting reports from the Minasian regime much and will try to make a safe pick. Liam Peterson, RHP, Florida, come on down.
Enjoy your weekend and link what I missed. We will have a draft thread going to discuss all of the picks. The Angels will have a zoom chat with their first round pick that I will be able to join and get some quotes from the young fella. I’ll pass along what I can.
Two more links for the board. I was on the zoom chats with Mcllvaine and Grindlinger today.
Why the first round pick was a good pick.
Clear signs the Angels front office is acting differently than usual.
Interesting. We Suck but we have signs of light.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=umh2Qvem1xg
I seen player to miss All Star game due to knee injury and I thought it was Mike Trout.
Oh My.
Great job Jeff. I enjoyed the SI articles, especially when you have time with the players.
Thank you. I got really lucky that day with Trout being right there.
Spain into the semi-finals with a 2-1 victory over Belgium. Hopefully they can take down France….
I am rooting for France ; better chance to disappoint corrupt FIFA by taking out their darling Messi and Argentina.
I as well. Mbappe is not my favorite at all.
While hard for me to route against England, hope to see Haaland in the Final. I’m a big EPL follower and while Manchester City is not my team, he is must see.
Bonus links:
Who is the second best draft pick in Angels history?
And a Reid Detmers to Chicago piece that was 100% inspired by a discussion we had yesterday.
Good stuff! We will learn a lot in the next 21 days.
Yardsale!
The Detmers linked works for me but the Draft one didn’t.
Anyways I found it and I’d say it’s a toss up between the two batsmen. My main takeaway though is you really need to hit on the draft a few years in a row, not just one good pick one year.
When you combine Edmonds (swap for Kennedy) in 88, with Salmon/ GA in 89/90… THAT makes a contender.
2009 draft was unique because it brought in many many good pieces and a HOF (the best draft ever by ANY team in MLB?) and you could argue 2014 was the fruition but that solo year was a miracle.
The previous dra[]t years here are on thin ice or worse right now. I still have hope for ‘24 & ‘25 but even if we get 2026 right, it’ll take a few more.
Both were good articles as usual.
I often think about Joe Saunders and where he would rank in the Angels organization in recent years and, sadly, he would be at or near the top quite often.
No knock on Hokie Joe he was a decent pitcher. But back when the farm was producing Weaver and Santana after producing Lackey, Frankie, and others Joe did not excite us.
That is how far the system has fallen.
Word of the Day: Shitcircus
Noun. A rolling disaster packed with overconfident morons, emotional clowns, and nonstop bad decisions pretending to be teamwork. Every problem gets louder instead of solved; accountability disappears without a trace, and somehow the dumbest person in the room still believes they are running the show professionally.
See: Arte Moreno.
TBW dropped his updated mock
12. Los Angeles Angels: Liam Peterson, RHP, Florida
Plenty of eyes on this pick after the Angels parted ways with Perry Minasian and have given, what they claim, full autonomy to Tim McIlvaine and his staff with this pick.
To my understanding, Minasian front lined each first round pick, excluding two. One came as a partial pivot from the team one pick ahead sweeping a handshake deal; and the other being driven by their model and landing them Zach Neto (Minasian and McIlvaine both really liked Neto as is).
No one expects the Angels amateur staff to jump reaction and flip the script entirely from what Minasian (and ownership to a fair degree) had kind of pushed for the quick-moving, high-floor players, but… they have been linked to some high-variance upside plays that probably wouldn’t have been links in previous years.
The talk remains arms and if you would have asked me three weeks ago, I would have said they’d be taking Logan Reddemann or Hunter Dietz, though I don’t think that is the case today. They were also the high club on Carson Boleman, who there were at least mumbles about grabbing this high.
Reddemann still sounds like he is in play, but his late season medicals may have pushed him behind Rojas, Liam Peterson, Tegan Kuhns, Flukey and Mason Edwards; likely in that order.
Pipedream for the Halos would be Booth or Burress, but they’ll be long gone at this point. If they jump the position player market, Grindlinger may be tops of potential available hitters ahead of Hacopian and Helfrick. Plenty of people point to the lack of position player impact from the Angels farm and have lopped in Gracia and Ace Reese, but that feels more speculative than anything of real connection.
https://www.thesportingtribune.com/2026/07/10/mlb-mock-draft-2026
Great minds, ha ha.
The Athletic described Peterson as “stuff over results” and I think that fits. The kid has four plus pitches that should be getting him better results than he is getting right now. Not that his results are bad.
But, a solid four pitch repertoire is a really solid base for a draft pick. Most college kids have 1 or 2 good pitches and you’re praying for a third to develop (Bremner). None of Peterson’s pitches are as good as Bremner’s best offerings. But Peterson’s third and fourth pitches are leaps better than Bremner’s.
Texan44 I belatedly approved your comment and your comments will appear in real time now.
Another great article. Thank you.
I’ve always been more of a hockey guy, but have followed the Halos my whole life. I am learning a lot about the actual workings of baseball on this site.
Thanks. This site is where I started learning about advanced metrics and the inner workings of clubs.
“Inner workings of clubs” – from the Angels?! All you would learn from this Org is severe dysfunction 😉
It is kind of like watching The Bear to see how a family works.
I can’t wait until the ArteChrist sells the team and I can actually understand how a proper team should be run.
I really like the 100 day plan comment and am very interested to see how that plays out. Like will he be allowed to execute it or does he become the next Jerry Depoto. Like someone here mentioned the other day, this will be Arte’s last chance to turn things around.
I’m at the point where words mean very little to me in this Org. Its just too easy to placate or obfuscate with words. It is basically propaganda. We have seen it time and time again – empty promises such as “compete”. So I’m going with “deeds not words” from here on out. I won’t believe anything until I see actual, substantial change and progress.
Same. And the actions will be clear with this one.
Either Mo gets his way or Mo leaves.
What will be interesting is if/when Mo hires one of his assistant Cardinals GMs to be the GM. It would be yet another hire with no experience in the position, but if Mo sticks around then it would be a solid front office.
The cool thing about proven guys is that they have options. Too many of the Angels past GMs had few options and therefore no leverage. Depoto bailed before the Angels could crater his reputation in a job where he didn’t really have authority.
Sorry, Dipoto
MLB Draft tomorrow! Without reading enough about the prospects to know much of anything, this is my big board for our 1st round pick:
Jackson Flora
Cameron Flukey
Best hitter available
Flora will be long gone but many mocks have Flukey potentially available at 12.
I think the best all around hitter that will be available is the A&M kid moved to us above. Or Ace Reese.
Chris Hacopian from Texas A&M sounds too much like Nolan Schanuel playing 2B. Hard no from me. Limited range, a weak arm and no power. I am no expert on prospects so I am very open to opposing opinions.
Hacopian sounds like Christian Moore 2.0 to me. Right down to many scouts expecting a move to left field.
If the Angels are going to go with a bat first guy with limited defensive value I would rather go with Reese. Yeah, he’s a first baseman as a pro but he’s also probably a 30 home run guy.
Flora is my hopeium pick because UCSB 🙏🏼
I really like Jared Grindlinger too, HSer from Huntington Beach with legit 2-way potential
July 10th, and Soler is still on this team. That is exactly how you tank a team.
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