LA Angels Thursday News Crash

24 days ago

Reply to FungoAle

Also, honestly, do you want to be stuck with Butler, Wilson, Soderstrom, Rooker and Kurtz/Langoliers if you can sign them or Neto and Detmers?

Or rather, since it’s the secret cause of all the pining, Neto, Soriano, Adell and Detmers?

Not to mention the A’s also have Denzel Clarke, Gelof, Alika Williams, Kuruda-Grauer and a semi-stacked farm. They will really need to buy some pitching, but between Bradden Nett, Cade Morris, Jaime Arnold and Wei En Lin they can probably fill two rotation spots. Medina, Harris and Basso are passable if not great pen arms if they aren’t in Sacto. They have Yunior Tur and Jackson Finley who could be their Natera next year.

I know where I’d land on this.

0

Legend

FungoAle

24 days ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

+ Devin Taylor once he gets his defensive skills calibrated. Good hitting tools.

I love my Reid Detmers and the Zach Attack but I’d objectively, not gushingly, take the A’s quintet. Butler, Wilson, Soderstrom, Rooker + Kurtz (he’s rejected thus far). Shea is a Boras client, unlikely he’ll be back??

Wilson is ~ $10M AAV
Soderstrom ~ $12 AAV
Rooker ~ $12 AAV
Butler ~ $10 AAV
Kurtz – TBD (it’s going up, 2-fold+)

It’s nice to have a core set of positional players under terms for the near team run for the AL West, up thru 2033, that’s when that majority of these guys will no longer be under contract. Will they all put up 5 WAR every season, no. But at that price point, there is flexibility to alter course. As you stated, buy the right arms when it comes time to really go for it.

Last edited 24 days ago by FungoAle

0

Editor

Legend

Turk's Teeth

24 days ago

Reply to TrojanBoiler

Don’t even have to defend it. Any reasonable person can see that the A’s young core is not collectively underperforming, nor were they overestimated – they’re simply not on the field due to injury. And I can’t think of a single injury that was down to poor conditioning or talent deficit.

Kurtz, Wilson, Langeliers, Rooker, Soderstrom, Clarke and Kuroda-Grauer – seven of their starting lineup are likely out of the season.

Much of their rotation (never a strength to begin with) is out for the season. Severino, Hoglund, key bullpen guys like Sterner and Leiter Jr, all out.

Not sure why it would piss cookie off. He’s usually a more rational type than that. Injuries are injuries, and virtually every key player on that club is out of action. It’s a lineup of bench guys and accelerated rookies.

0

Trusted Member

cookmeister

23 days ago

Reply to Turk's Teeth

Angels twitter. That pisses me off. The constant glazing.

I didn’t mean to downplay injuries. I’m not in the camp of “oh they are all injured the rest of the year, they suck.”

Kurtz is good. So is Soderstrom.

Wilson took a step back this year.

Butler, until recently, has been bad for over a year.

Langeliers was not good after May.

And all of their numbers are significantly worse on the road.

And again, their pitching is horrible.

0

Super Member

TrojanBoiler

24 days ago

Reply to cookmeister

I think one of the big takeaways from all of this is how incredibly unpredictable baseball is, whether its trades, free agent signings, extensions, or banking on young players to continue improving.

This is precisely why its so unfair that a few teams get to outspend the rest of the league by several multiples. The Dodgers can choke on Kyle Tucker’s contract, and it doesn’t matter because for every miss there’s another huge free agent that worked out. They can afford more total opportunities so their misses don’t sink the ship.

0

Legend

24 days ago

Reply to cookmeister

A’s: Clearly Arte and his puppet GM are to blame for all the A’s injuries. If the bad juju continues for the A’s they will suck again next year. If they get a couple passable pitchers and some normal health they will finish over .500… which I guess is gushing? They had some bad luck. Lay it squarely at someone’s feet.

Astros: I am afraid of Yordan Alvarez and won’t look him in the eyes. The rest of the team is old, yet still with Paredes, Pena, Altuve, Walker…. if they add ANY other good player, or if Varshoe and Smith are healthy and bounce back they will not be October faves but will beat our ass. Especially if pitching gets ANY better.

The Mariners: F*** the Mariners. No seriously, they are screwed, accept for that farm they have. If it suddenly produces a couple good position players they are right back in the hunt till the wheels fall off those pitchers. Still, they can suck it.

Rangers: The Steelers of baseball. Refuse to be horrible. Refuse to be really good. Not much farm. Need to pop open a bottle of magic to contend, but have some players that could do it.

The Angels: It’s been 20 days since they admitted they are in a rebuild. I’d say they have 1/2 the position player prospects they need, but plenty of pitching hopefuls. They need about 5 positions filled long term by cheap young heroes like my new man crush Jake Munroe. It will likely take about 15 prospects to pull that off. Once there we will also see a solid pitching staff lead by some of the young men we are watching now. Does this sound like a team that’s close? Nope. Maybe we magic our way to a good season the way the Orioles did a little while back, but the build won’t be done for a couple years at least. THEN we have to get competitive. Maybe sign some FAs. I say we are three years away from being a steady “They could be in the play offs this year” contender long term.

The Dodgers: The strike will fix nothing because every player in the MLBPA thinks they will end up on the Dodgers, who will continue to buy championships. I get bored and become a sand sculptor, slowly forgetting about baseball.

Honestly, not next year, but over the next 5 years I see the A’s and the draw of playing in Vegas becoming a big deal. They get some pitchers. They get good for a while and even as the Angels improve we see more classic A’s/Angels rival games where we go .500 against each other over a 10 year period. But the A’s will hang flags before we do and semi-own the west for a few years soon.

0

Trusted Member

jco

24 days ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

If they can get the pitching settled mostly with current players/farm, they can buy free agent position players to fill in the gaps. I agree completely that I don’t see the prospects on the hitters side to fill all of the gaps (although there are a few intriguing players there). That’s where they will need to spend some money, but they really don’t have that much committed at this point.

0

Legend

24 days ago

I want to see that Giants pitcher Tug Boat and his “unseeable” 91mph fast ball.

0

Trusted Member

GonFishin

24 days ago

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

1

Editor

Legend

Turk's Teeth

24 days ago

Reply to GonFishin

ESPN also updated their Top 100 list today, and for the first time that I can remember, than Angels have four inclusions:

31 – Arjun Nimmala
48 – Tyler Bremner
93 – Dylan Jordan
99 – Johnny Slawinski

Not having Hayden Alvarez in the mix is interesting – much like Fangraphs, he’d be #2 on my own list.

1

Trusted Member

jco

24 days ago

Reply to Turk's Teeth

Is Klassen not eligible for that list? He seems to be an omission too.

0

Editor

Legend

Turk's Teeth

24 days ago

Reply to jco

Klassen is still technically a prospect, though that status will likely elapse soon – with 50 IP or 45 days on an active roster.

Fangraphs has him at #105 on their list – basically on the bubble of their top 100. They’ve been the most bullish.

It’s worth remembering that Klassen had a relatively tough 2025 in AA, and this year in the PCL, his strikeouts were down and his walks were up. Even setting aside the challenging PCL environment, he had a league-adjusted 4.70 xERA and 5.01 xFIP, and his first two April appearances were disasters. That’s not exactly Top 100 marks, though internal indicators were showing improvement throughout the summer.

But I’m sure that few league-wide prospect rankings are willing to quickly elevate a 24 yo SP on the strength of 17 innings in August.

1

Trusted Member

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

24 days 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.

Now I’m feeling merely awesome about Munroe.

0

Legend

24 days ago

Reply to grichmanpoorman

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.

0

Trusted Member

24 days ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

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.

0

Editor

Legend

Turk's Teeth

24 days ago

Reply to grichmanpoorman

Kind of the same lesson as your read on Nimmala yesterday, Grich.

Batting average is way, way down the list of metrics seasoned talent evaluators look at when projecting future success. Batted ball impact, barrels, EVs, loft, OOZ chase, in-zone contact vs each pitch type – all of that is going to be more predictive than BABIP easily influenced by defense, bad MiLB park surfaces, league factors, etc.

0

Trusted Member

24 days ago

Reply to Turk's Teeth

So you don’t agree that the .340 avg is illusory?

None of this was meant to comment on his overall prospect set. Just marveling at the numbers. Any way you clip it, 17 HRs in 140 ABs is pretty darn impressive. He’s on a crazy heater.

0

Editor

Legend

Turk's Teeth

24 days ago

Reply to grichmanpoorman

That batting average is completely unsustainable, yes. Certainly at the MLB level. Compton hunts mistakes and whiffs at everything else. MLB pitchers make many fewer mistakes.

That’s why I’d neither project Nimmala based on a low average or Compton based on a small sample high one, but look instead at contact quality data for both.

1

Editor

Legend

Turk's Teeth

24 days ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

Honestly, there are still all sorts of 3TO indications with Compton. 33% K rate and a 59% contact rate across two levels this season. He’s ice cold blue – 3% in terms of whiff rate, 11% for in-zone contact – on key parts of his statcast chart. They’re sub-Gallo marks.

I mean, the dudes at FG are no fools, and they tag Compton with a 35+ FV. 20 grade present hit tool, 60 grade raw power.

Moore absolutely destroyed AA pitching, and looks utterly unplayable at the MLB level – and his underlying contact metrics are far superior to Compton’s.

0

Trusted Member

Texan44

24 days 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.

1

Legend

24 days ago

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.

0

Trusted Member

24 days 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.

0

Super Member

2pints

24 days ago

Reply to grichmanpoorman

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

2

Super Member

TrojanBoiler

24 days ago

Reply to grichmanpoorman

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.

2

Legend

24 days ago

Reply to TrojanBoiler

“just sign players and win” is just about as automatic as tanking. Both are hit or miss.

0

Super Member

TrojanBoiler

24 days ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

Smart teams (without infinite funds) use them cyclically. Build a young core by trading away major league talent, and when that core starts getting competitive you flip back into spend mode and supplement that roster where needed to fill in the holes. Maintain that for a year or two or three and then tear it down again and start over when it gets too expensive.

0

Trusted Member

Texan44

24 days ago

Reply to TrojanBoiler

I think Connie Mack started that 100+ years ago.

0

Legend

RexFregosi

24 days ago

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

0

Author

Super Member

Charles Sutton

24 days ago

Reply to RexFregosi

I figure he was projected for 0.0 WAR.

0

Legend

Fansince1971

24 days ago

Reply to Charles Sutton

His not playing may actually be WAR positive for the Halos

0

Legend

RexFregosi

24 days 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?

0

Legend

Fansince1971

24 days ago

Reply to RexFregosi

Stepped in the sar-chasm

0

Legend

24 days ago

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

0

Legend

24 days ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

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

2

Legend

24 days ago

Reply to Senator_John_Blutarsky

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

0

Legend

RexFregosi

24 days ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

I never want 100 loss team.

99 and lottery luck is my hope.

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

4

Trusted Member

jco

24 days ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

I would prefer to maintain our status as the only team w/o a 100 loss season.

3

Legend

24 days ago

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.

0

Legend

24 days ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

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

2

Trusted Member

24 days ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

Rada OPS a very respectable .743

0

Legend

24 days ago

Reply to grichmanpoorman

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.

1

Trusted Member

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

24 days ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

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.

0

Trusted Member

Texan44

24 days ago

Reply to grichmanpoorman

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.

0

Trusted Member

jco

24 days ago

Reply to Texan44

He might get there. Mullins was in college when he was Rada’s age, so it’s tough to compare, but when he reached the minors, Mullins flashed some modest power slugging in the mid .400s. Rada walks more, but shows no power thus far. He’s only 20 still, so I’m not saying there’s any problem, but right now, I think ML pitchers would eat him up and he’d be pretty similar to Teodosio offensively. That could very well change as he ages. He strikes out a little too much to be the type of hitter who can survive without power.

0

Legend

24 days ago

Reply to grichmanpoorman

I think he can totally surpass a .650 OPS at some point. That’s why I kept harping on CURENTLY. He isn’t currently being blocked, nor will it likely be the case in early 2027, because he’s not that good yet. But he can be at some point since he’s only 20.

0

Author

Super Member

Charles Sutton

24 days ago

The Rockies just released Michael Lorenzen. He’s having a bad year.

0

Legend

Fansince1971

24 days 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 24 days ago by Fansince1971

0

Legend

24 days ago

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!”

0

Legend

24 days ago

Reply to Charles Sutton

So we should sign him. Now.

1

Legend

Pineapple12

24 days 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.

3

Trusted Member

24 days ago

Reply to Pineapple12

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

0

Legend

GrandpaBaseball

24 days 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.

1

Legend

MarineLayer

24 days ago

Reply to GrandpaBaseball

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

1

Legend

24 days ago

Reply to MarineLayer

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

2

Trusted Member

milehigh

24 days ago

Reply to GrandpaBaseball

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.

0

Legend

GrandpaBaseball

24 days ago

Reply to milehigh

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

0

Legend

Pineapple12

24 days 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

2

Super Member

MH252525

24 days 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.

0

Legend

24 days ago

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.

2

Legend

MarineLayer

24 days ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

Unironically I agree with you.

0

Legend

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

24 days ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

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

3

Super Member

HalosFanForLife

24 days ago

Reply to Senator_John_Blutarsky

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

2

Author

Super Member

Charles Sutton

24 days ago

Reply to HalosFanForLife

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kWkJu1tAt3Q

0

Legend

FungoAle

24 days ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

A lot of Dominican players play this way and most just fade away

0

Legend

MarineLayer

24 days ago

Reply to MH252525

Agreed. The dumbness starts with Suzuki and filters down.

0

Super Member

Jim Atkins

24 days 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.

1

Trusted Member

Biggiswrth

24 days ago

Reply to Pineapple12

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

1

Legend