LA Angels Tuesday News Crash: Adell POW

Here’s an unexciting pile of stuff that sad donkey can complain about, but it may help us. See, late bloomers in the MiLB have a problem, as do blocked prospects. They have that pesky Rule 5 draft coming at them. The very generalized way thsi works is that kids that are signed at 18 or younger can be in a system about 5 years. Kids signed at 19 or older it’s 4 years. After that, a team must either put them on the 40 man roster or expose them to the Rule 5 draft.

Now, most good prospects advance to the point that a team knows it wants to put them on that 40 man within 4 years. If not they are usually fine with exposing them to the draft, knowing that most kids will not be taken.

But there is a side hustle to this that PTP may be able to wrangle. See, we have some nice prospects below AA. We have almost no position prospects at AA or above. So trading for prospects that are becoming a possible Rule5/40 Man headache for other teams works a little better for us since we should want to stock AA/AAA.

Will this list of players likely be a bunch of Kavedas? Yes. It will. But they will also not require much in trade, or they will be easy to include in bigger trades from stacked teams, say if we trade with the Cubs. We may also be able to land a couple of them as MiLB FAs at some point as teams sign FAs etc. It is also likely that some of these guys will get added to the 40 man or are already on it for their team, but as I said, everyone’s gonna need to reshuffle a little. Still no. None of these guys are sure things and I’d consider it a win if we land a few of these guys and two of them become anything at all.

Here’s some guys…

3B: LuJames Groover – AZ, Yasel Soler – AZ, David McCabe – ATL.

None of these guys are great. But take a look at the top 10 3B prospects out there. After Sal Stewert, who we will not be getting, things get bleak and teams like the A’s and Rockies aren’t trading us their kids. They all mostly have to potential to field OK and be somewhat flawed #6 hitters. I have seen Soler play a few times in person and think he’s pretty good, but he’s also least likely to be traded. McCabe may be a secret steal though if he gets dropped.

OF – Alfonsin Rosario – CLE, Kala’i Rosario – Twins, Hendry Mendez – Twins, Gavin Conticello – AZ, Zach Cole – Hou, Jace Avina – NYY, Tirso Ornelas – Padres, Joshua Baez – Cards, Yohendrick Pinango – TOR, Victor Arias – TOR

All of these guys have flaws. I like both Rosarios though along with Baez. Ornelas is good too but is on a 40 man and not likely to be dropped. Guys like Cole and Avina have incredible power and Cole can run too but are total hackers that would need to be fixed. Arias is likely gonna be protected by the Blue Jays which will likely boot Pinango off the 40 man. He is a hitter who will play an ugly LF.

INF: Aron Estrada – BAL, Mikey Romero – BOS, Pedro Ramirez – Cubs, James Triantos – Cubs, Tyler Callihan – Reds, Leo Balcazar – Reds, John Peck – Tigers, Mitch Jebb -PITT
Cooper Kinney – Rays, Josh Kasevich – TOR

There’s gold here. Especially if you think maybe we should move Moore to the OF. Estrada, Triantos and Callihan would all need to fall off a 40 man, but if their clubs wanted to solve that problem by trading them I would be all for it. Cooper Kinney has an interesting bat too.

A guy like Turks Teeth will smack his own forehead when he sees this list. All of these guys have flaws, which is why they are closing in on Rule 5 danger in the next year or two. But we failed to draft position players. Maybe we can pick up some guys who have suffered steadily declining OPS numbers as they advanced through the minors and fix them in AA?

This, by the way, is how teams end up with Max Muncy and Brent Rooker. It could be a fast and effective boost to our roster and it’s low risk.A Guy like Tyler Callihan has a trade value of 1.3. Trade Ward to the Reds for Hector Rodriguez and have them throw in Callihan, Balcazar and a flyer pitching prospect. That’s the type of deal I’d want right now.

Pick up Pinango and McCabe if they get dropped off the 40 man.

Gets some older kids in SLC/Madison.