LA Angels Thursday News Crash

This article concerns statcast data about which first basemen are best at recieving throws from infielders. Nolan Schanuel comes off not looking too bad. The Angels rank quite low on how much potential WAR they have lost due to injury. You can either read that as they have been lucky about injuries or alternatively that they weren’t going to get that much projected WAR out of those guys anyway.

The Mariners selected the contract of Jhonathan Diaz. The Cubs claimed infielder Gabriel Arias off waivers from the Mets. The Giants claimed left-hander Philip Abner off waivers from the Diamondbacks.

Oh Noooo! The Pirates released Dominic Fletcher. The Dodgers designated right-hander Jonathan Hernandez for assignment while the Rockies designated Left-hander Parker Mushinski for assignment.

It appears the Los Angeles Queens have the second best win percentage and second best run differential in Women’s Professional Baseball through week 3.

Photo credit: Rex Fregosi

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GonFishin
Trusted Member
1 hour ago

Unless my eyes deceive me, I think Slawinski made MLB’s top 100 right at 99.

grichmanpoorman
Trusted Member
1 hour ago

I was feeling super-awesome about Jake Munroe’s performance in the Southern League until I foolishly looked up this year’s batting leaders in the league and saw what Marlins prospect Brandon Compton (2nd rounder last year, also 22 like Jake) was doing in about the same number of ABs. Holy sh*t.

https://www.milb.com/player/brandon-compton-703680

Now I’m feeling merely awesome about Munroe.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend

Compton makes me laugh cause he was avails in a bunch of mock drafts I did with friends and in my mind I did the thing where I read three scouting reports, watch about five ABs on film and decided that I was EXPERTISH enough to identify him as a future 3 True Outcomes hitter who needs to make more contact to make my highly trained coachdad eyes happy….

Welp. I sure did not see this performance coming…. way to go me.

grichmanpoorman
Trusted Member
1 hour ago

Interesting that they promoted him from High-A despite a .220 average and now he’s clearing .340 in AA. Seems like an illusion… more so than Jake’s average.

Texan44
Trusted Member
4 hours ago

Sometime in late 2019, I decided to follow the rebuilt of Orioles (Mike Elias) as Astros had run their course of interest. In December 2019, he traded Dylan Bundy to LA Angels for Kyle Bradish, Kyle Brnovich, Zach Peek, and Isaac Mattson. So I was watching Bowie and Norfolk teams. At Bowie (AA) was Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman, Joey Ortiz, Santander, Jordan Westburg, and Kyle Stowers. Pitching was DL Hall, Bradish, Brnovich, GRod, Felix Bautista, and Mike Baumann. I knew that the Orioles had the perfect “tank and rebuild.” As you can see, it didn’t work out for them and most of the future MLB players are with other teams. “Tanking is the easiest part.”

Brnovich was as good as anyone pitching in that league. He never made it past the minors and was released by the Orioles – August 7.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  Texan44

Yup. Gotta keep filling the tank. The tank actually did it’s job, it made the O’s a viable org instead of a slag pile. I know guys who work for Elias, that was goal one.

But you hit that goal in the MiLB knowing the failure rate’s gonna be high. You gotta crush a lot of rock to get a little gold. They just replenished their farm pretty good. Basallo looks like a piece. Mayo, Holiday and Henderson are an average of 23 years old.

Most rebuilds don’t just suss out to “traded players, got seven prospects, seven prospects are now MLB regulars”. There’ll be bust and fizzle. But you just can’t really fill a dozen holes on your roster with “viable talent” any other way. Especially because it seems like free agents bust out pretty often now too. Not like prospects, but far from reliable. And if you sign FAs and a prospect DOES bust out you will be short on cash to retain the youngster. The O’s don’t have to tank, but since they are about 2/3 done they gotta keep getting younger with more prospect opportunity.

If the O’s got a couple good pitchers developed they’d remind me of the 70s A’s as they moved to Oakland. A bunch of names you will really care about in a year or two that are still a bit of a mess.

grichmanpoorman
Trusted Member
1 hour ago
Reply to  Texan44

Thank you for the sober, measured thoughts about tanking. It’s not some ancient incantation that makes a World Series rise out of the earth… though a few folks around here seem to hold it in that reverence.

2pints
Super Member
5 minutes ago

Its a better option compared to what the Halos have been doing the past few years.

TrojanBoiler
Super Member
3 seconds ago

I don’t think anyone around here thinks tanking will be an automatic solution. Most of us are just happy that the team is FINALLY admitting the status quo isn’t working and they are trying to do something different.

Definition of insanity and all that.

RexFregosi
Legend
4 hours ago

WAR Lost due to injuries in 2026 – that should include Anthony what’s-his-name too, right?

Fansince1971
Legend
3 hours ago
Reply to  Charles Sutton

His not playing may actually be WAR positive for the Halos

RexFregosi
Legend
3 hours ago
Reply to  Fansince1971

Not really. His problem was he was absent from the line-up, not his production while healthy and in the lineup.

A full healthy season he could have been projected for ~2 bWAR in 2026. Contract year dontchaknow.

That’s better than what 3b has generated instead.

What other injuries cost us bWAR this year?
Kikuchi. Soler? d’Arnaud?

Fansince1971
Legend
1 hour ago
Reply to  RexFregosi

Stepped in the sar-chasm

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend

If it takes 100 losses to be the #1 worst team, do we go for it?

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend

We do whatever it takes to increase the odds of the #1 overall selection.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend

Problem is, this year, there’s not much difference between pick 1 and pick 4.

RexFregosi
Legend
4 hours ago

I never want 100 loss team.

99 and lottery luck is my hope.

If 100 losses guaranteed a #1 pick, I’d reconsider.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend

Wait. Since the head rots from the fish out and other cliches, clearly we now have an excellent training and medical staff working here in the Heim and Perry knew ahead of time he needed just these exact trainers and messagers and people who apply gel to body parts in order to solve the problem that was equally clearly his fault in say 2022 or 23. Good job Puss.

Jihwan Bae is an ex-Pirates prospect I have always liked that is beginning his career as a failure nomad. Bref him if you want. Look at his MiLB stats. I think he could be a potentially useful pick up for a team that needs roster filler while they rebuild. He doesn’t have to figure out a dozen things to be solid. Kind of like Peraza. Peraza’s not the answer to any big questions, but for now he’s a 2 WAR player who can do a lot of tasks and that aint half bad. We could also bring in Dominic Fletcher this spring so that small white guys who never got a punchers chance at making it can adopt him as their gritty spiritual son. Sure, we have Meckler and Siri, but Fletcher’s another guy who could have his uses if he just clicks and we will have just the team he could try to do it on. Same goes for the recently passed around Gabrial Arias. A lot of our position player prospects will be high A to AA whenever baseball happens in 2027. Sure, lesserly intelligent fans will bitch about Fletcher blocking Rada and his .630 OPS for three months. But packing AAA with a bunch of elderly lottery tickets isn’t a bad idea. Especially if we have some arms we want to put through PCL hell as they develop next year. Perry may be gone, but the dumpster is still out there.

Walbert still looked good last night. Nolan Schanuel is looking like a solid player. Without his super cold start to this season he’d be the James Loney I’m dreaming of. I hope he has a hot streak at the end here and reaches that ten home run milestone with a .285 BA.

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend

Walbert pitched well enough to win last night, but the bats let him down. However, we’ll salute the flag and take the loss.

grichmanpoorman
Trusted Member
2 hours ago

Rada OPS a very respectable .743

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend

That’s a fairly pedestrian OPS in the PCL. Current Rada will have an OPS under .650 in the MLB. As in, if he started playing tonight for the Angels and played long enough for pitchers to get a book he’d lose around .100 OPS as I see it. He’s weak, the pitchers are strong, he legs out balls, the defense and IF arms are much stronger. In his current state MLB pitching will push him around.

grichmanpoorman
Trusted Member
1 hour ago

We shall see? He has a history of rising to the challenge of a given pro level and will almost certainly get a jolt from a promotion. He’s very capable in my eye of duplicating his AAA numbers in the bigs… and hopefully surpassing them, given that he’s 20 and will presumably get stronger.

Texan44
Trusted Member
53 minutes ago

I have watched Rada in probably 5-7 games. So I don’t have much experience in knowing him. But he reminds me of Cedric Mullin. Defense first. Average to below average arm. Anything you get as a batter is extra.
And Ced is playing CF on a first place team.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mullice01.shtml

Fansince1971
Legend
5 hours ago
Reply to  Charles Sutton

Bad year is an understatement. 3-11 with a 7.08 ERA, 168 hits allowed in 120 IP and a 1.88 WHIP. That is stinky bad.

Sounds like an Angel target to me!

Last edited 5 hours ago by Fansince1971
gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  Charles Sutton

I love when Lorenzen fails cause I can look at him and say “SEEEEE! Being in great shape doesn’t mean shit!”

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend
Reply to  Charles Sutton

So we should sign him. Now.

Pineapple12
Legend
6 hours ago

8/19 Farm Report

AAA — Raudi Rodriguez
3/5 | triple | 4 RBI

AA — Is Jake Munroe the greatest prospect ever? 3/4 HR raising his AA averages to a stunning .338 / .415 / .510

Chris Cortez had himself a tidy outing — 2 innings | 0 ER | 3 K

High A — Dylan Jordan looked more like himself after a few rough outings
5 innings | 5 hits | 3 ER | 6 K

Low A — TGA went
4.2 innings | 1 hit | 1 ER | 4 BB | 3 K.

OC-native Gavin Grahovac went 2/4 HR, SB. Grahovac has 9 steals in 12 games. He only had 10 steals in 130 college games.

grichmanpoorman
Trusted Member
2 hours ago
Reply to  Pineapple12

Monroe best BA in the Southern League among players with 150+ ABs.

GrandpaBaseball
Legend
6 hours ago

It seems that way too often the Angels are the hitless wonders of the American League, just look at the Batting averages of these guys. Glad to see the work that Schanny puts in shows up in his defense. Those first couple of seasons were tough. I’m a fan, he’s a work in progress though but keeps improving. We are tied today with the Rox and 1 game behind the A’s in the tank run for the roses.

MarineLayer
Legend
4 hours ago

I’m loving Brady Anderson as a hitting coach. Not. So glad he wasn’t purged with Maddux. Not.

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend
Reply to  MarineLayer

Brady received and actually read the memo. He’s serving the greater good.

milehigh
Trusted Member
1 hour ago

Interesting, to me at least, I like numbers.

MLB team average number of hits is 1042. Angels have 994, so 48 hit’s less than average. Yanks have 955, second lowest in all MLB only 4 more than the Reds. Yanks have a 71-55 record. Must be doing something else right.

GrandpaBaseball
Legend
1 hour ago
Reply to  milehigh

Trade Anderson to the Yanks for a bag of rocks. 😆 

Pineapple12
Legend
7 hours ago

Even for me the last months of the season are a real slog. I have been vocal in rooting for the tank and it’s taking a toll 😂. Against what some may think I don’t enjoy rooting for us to lose.

35 games left.
Objective — finish with a bottom 3 record.
Northstar — finish with worst the record

MH252525
Super Member
6 hours ago
Reply to  Pineapple12

The Angels make my brain hurt. Watching Trout know two pitches were balls and him not challenging in the 7th inning with him representing the go ahead run was infuriating. But then seeing Siri squirm and want to argue with the umpire when there were 2 outs in the 9th and we had a challenge and he still didn’t use it…. Moronic.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  MH252525

Siri feels very Rengifo to me. My inner old angry pink white guy just want to yell “F**K YOUR STUPID EARINGS AND CATCH WITH TWO HANDS INSTEAD OF ARGUEING THE STRIKE ZONE LIKE YOU’RE WADE BOGGS!”

He’s actually not THAT bad a 4th OF option. He just annoys me.

MarineLayer
Legend
4 hours ago

Unironically I agree with you.

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend

I agree, but will take it a step further: he’s Rengifo doing the Aybar (“bees are attacking me – Elaine Seinfeld dance”).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsl3IBAsEH4

HalosFanForLife
Super Member
1 hour ago

But that one move is very dance worthy. She’s a great dancer. —1971

MarineLayer
Legend
4 hours ago
Reply to  MH252525

Agreed. The dumbness starts with Suzuki and filters down.

Jim Atkins
Super Member
52 minutes ago
Reply to  MH252525

Agree. Although I will be seeing them in DC in 3 weeks or so. We’re gonna be doing the Smithsonian and I got tix for the sunday Nats game.

Biggiswrth
Trusted Member
6 hours ago
Reply to  Pineapple12

Objective on map- Finish the year with no more than 99 losses.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  Pineapple12

Just think of yourself as an expectant mother. Sure you puke a lot, have ass sores, you’re sweaty and pee yourself a little sometimes. You ache and you smell bad. But eventually you will birth a beautiful baby with a complete line up and solid rotation.

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