SB Nation User Blog: 101halo

Angels have no power in the minors!

101halo — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 03:54:43 -0000

Our whole farm is entirely devoid of any kind of decent hitting prospects. Oh no! Whatever will we do!?!

Oh, except these guys today:

AAA SLC:
S-Rod 3-4 today with his 19th HR in 206 AB. That projects to 55 in 600 AB (granted, this is the PCL, but that's still impressive). That all with an avg/obp/slg line of .310/.412/.660. After seeing his defensive skills earlier this year in the majors, is there not at least a shot we see him starting at SS for the Angels in 2009?

AA Arkansas:
So I went to look at Rancho, and noticed that 1B Mark Trumbo didn't play today, so I had this sneaky suspicion he'd been promoted. Sure enough, he had! Just today! In his AA debut? Try 5-5 for 2 HR and a double. That puts his MILB season total at 28 in 412 AB. Oh, and if that wasn't enough, Chris Pettit, who missed most of the beginning of the year hit 2 tonight as well. Both were back to back with Trumbo.

For all the talk of how our system has no good prospects left, I'm not sure I agree. And this is without even discussing our elite prospects Conger, Walden and Adenhart, nor those starting to show solid growth despite being a little to old to be considered star prospects, aka Sandoval, Matt Brown and Jason Bulger, nor the slightly-starting-to-be-kinda-frustrating-but-supposedly-elite-prospect Brandon Wood.

Update: To put this in perspective, I'm including a chart of S-Rod's age 23 season in AAA and D-Mac's age 23 season split between AA and AAA. It should help explain why this is so exciting. Also, if you include D-Mac's age 28 MILB season, you see that while he is hitting more HR, it's not drastically faster rate, and S-Rod has a much better AVG and actually draws walks, too! The only disclaimer here is that D-Mac kept this performance up over a much larger sampling of AB. All stats include S-Rod's performance today. A little crazy, eh?

	Age	Level	AB	HR	HR/600AB	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
D-Mac	23	AA/AAA	521	40	46	.317	.384	.670	1.054
D-Mac	27	AAA	340	38	67	.297	.403	.688	1.091
S-Rod	23	AAA	207	19	55	.319	.417	.676	1.093

Scioscia prepping Matthews for a trade?

101halo — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:21:02 -0000

Scioscia prepping Matthews for a trade?

That's my take.

He seems unhappy by his recent benching, but somewhat understanding, yet unwilling to continue riding the pine. Sounds like Scioscia is showing him what it will be like for the rest of the year if he isn't willing to waive his no-trade clause. It seems like a smart move to me, as GMJ clearly wants to play (and truthfully, probably should on a non-contender).

We can only hope... let's go Juan!

SLC puts the beatdown on Tacoma

101halo — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:57:08 -0000

Much like the MLB teams, Angels AAA affiliate SLC took down the Mariner's own very best (worst) Tacoma to the tune of 20-7 last night. Box Score Here. Wow, Seattle really can't catch a break recently, huh? Gotta love it.

Sean Rodriguez, not to be outdone by Chris Pettit's 7 RBI performance for AA Arkansas the day before, went 3-5 with a 3 run HR, a 2 run HR, a double, 4 runs scored and EIGHT RBI. (Yes, I understand I'm venturing dangerously close into Acuda MILB-mancrush territory with S-Rod. It's a slippery slope).

Also, Nick Adenhart picked up his 6th win of the season with the Bees. Unfortunately, it was the offense that caused the win, not so much his pitching prowess. He went 5 IP, allowing 10 hits and 7 ER with 3 HR to raise his ERA to a whopping 5.74 on the year. Something tells me he might benefit from repeating AAA in 2009...

Hiroki Kuroda, perfect game through 7

101halo — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 03:51:13 -0000

Hiroki Kuroda, perfect game through 7

No, really, Dodger Hiroki Kuroda pitching a perfect game through 7 innings. A perfect game. Literally. Like no hits, no walks. A perfect game.

Just saying, just saying... not that as an Angel fan one would want to jinx a Doyer PERFECT GAME.

Angels #1 Prospect?

101halo — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:44:25 -0000

It's a bit early to call this, maybe, but we might have a new #1 prospect after this year. Here are the numbers from 2008 so far, and what they project to based on 575 AB at SLC.

AAA - SLC	AB	R	RBI	HR	SB	AVG
2008	131	36	27	12	3	.305
Proj Full Season	575	158	119	53	13	.305

Want to take a guess who that is?

No, it's not Brandon Wood. It's our very own 23-year-old Sean Rodriguez. Think it's kind of fluky? Clearly he had a poor 2007, but go back and check out his 2006 MILB stats. He may not have 40-50 HR power, but the 30 HR potential is there with a decent average. He has also reduced his K rate from 26% of the time in 2007 to only 17% in 2008.

Towards the end of his time in the majors before Figgy and Howie came back he started showing signs of coming to life. While he's primarily played 2B this year in the majors and minors, in 2006 and 2007 he spent most of his time at SS. While Aybar is working to become our everyday SS, if S-Rod keeps this up, he might force the organizations hand in 2009 or 2010!

Thoughts?

Suck on this, Choakland! 5 runs. No, really. GA's shot passed right by us. Next time.

101halo — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:47:31 -0000

Suck on this, Choakland! 5 runs. No, really. GA's shot passed right by us. Next time.

2008 Prediction Thread

101halo — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:17:33 -0000

Let's have a little fun with our magic 8 balls today and make some predictions for 2008. Here's my take:

Boston/NYY/Tampa Bay/Toronto/Baltimore
Detroit/Cleveland/Minnesota/Kansas City/Chi Sox
Angels/Mariners/Oakland/Texas

NYM/Philly/Atlanta/Washington/Florida
Chi Cubs/Milwaukee/Cincinnati/Houston/St Louis/Pittsburgh
Arizona/LAD/Colorado/San Diego/San Francisco

Best Record: Tied between Detroit and Angels
Worst Record: San Francisco by a mile

ALDS:
Angels over Cleveland(WC)
Detroit over Boston
ALCS:
Detroit over Angels (sorry, folks)

NLDS:
NYM over LAD(WC)
Arizona over Cubs
NLCS:
Arizona over NYM

WS: Detroit over Arizona in 6

Thoughts, anybody have any bold predictions?

Halfway in, Spring Training recap

101halo — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 05:35:42 -0000

Alright everyone, we're about halfway into Spring Training, and so let's take a second to look at what we've seen thus far, and insight into what we'll be looking at these last two weeks before Opening Day.

Torii Hunter has not yet proven to be overpaid. If anything, he's a bargain having gone 11 for 18 with 8 extra base hits thus far. His 2.021 OPS leads all MLB players with at least 15 AB. While we can't expect this production to continue at this rate, it's encouraging to see his excitement to be hanging out with the Rally Monkey in Tempe.
Aybar, or Izturis? Thus far Izturis' bat has been slightly stronger than Aybar, but neither has been a slouch, either (.950 OPS vs .762). Neither has committed an error, leaving open the possibility of a 50-50 platoon this year. Also, while Wood has hit 2 dingers in 24 AB, he also leads the Angels in Ks at 10. Back to AAA he goes to start the year.
Darren O'Day wins the bullpen spot vacated due to Bootcheck's injury to start the year. Tip back one for O'Day on Monday for St. Patty's Day, but while this one isn't official yet, it's looking awfully likely. In 9.1 innings this spring, he has not yet allowed a run, only 2 hits, yet has 10 K's. Dude might not even hit 90mph, but lookout for him to hit the Anaheim bullpen sooner rather than later.
Ervin Santana, after a dominant playoff series in the Dominican Republic, has picked up right where he left off last year in the rotation. In 8.2 IP, he's allowed 8 ER for a not-so-healthy ERA of 8.31. While he's a lock to start the season in the rotation due to Kelvim's shoulder soreness, keep an eye on him, as if he continues in this vein he won't hold the 5th spot in the rotation over Saunders for very long.
Peter Bourjos, at just 21 years old, has gone from low-A ball last year, to being clearly on the Angels radar at this point. Scioscia has been quoted as saying he's rivaling Willits and Haynes for the title of "fastest Angel in camp," and it's not just his speed that has impressed. At 8 for 18 this spring with a 1.111 OPS, keep an eye on this youngster this year to see how he does in A ball, as at this rate he may end up in Arkansas by years-end.

While these aren't the only stories this spring, these have been the most interesting. Let me know if I missed anything, and we'll take another look at the end of camp to see where things stand!

Poll edit: Scratch Jose Arrendondo off the list. Despite not earning a run yet in 5 IP this Spring, he has been reassigned to minor league camp. This would appear to clearly be a reflection of our front office's position on his "attitude problems." Keep an eye on him, though, as he would clearly be a candidate for a September call-up or fill in due to injury.

Poll

Who takes the bullpen spot opened by Chris Bootcheck's sprained oblique to start the season?

Darren O'Day

41 votes

Sean O'Sullivan

1 votes

Jason Bulger

6 votes

Rich Thompson

3 votes

Stephen Marek

1 votes

Kasey Olenberger

2 votes

Jose Arredondo

0 votes

Matt Wilhite

0 votes

Henry Bonilla

0 votes

54 votes | Poll has closed

Reminder: MLB Gameday ST

101halo — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:56:31 -0000

Just a reminder from last year, this is how to get to gameday links for spring training. Example link:

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/y2007/gd.html?2008_02_27_cinmlb_phimlb_1&brand=mlb

The only 3 things you will need to change are in bold: the date, the away team first, and the home team second. All the teams use 3 letter codes, we will always be ANA. Most 3 letter codes are obvious, the only ones that are confusing are cities that have two teams. For those, the 3rd letter is always either A or N to denote AL or NL. (Example: NYA = yanks, NYN = mets)

Hope this is clear! And no, gameday doesn't have our split squad game today, but yes, it should have tomorrow's opener against Tehas!

Red Sox sign Colon!

101halo — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 23:10:00 -0000

Per ESPN

Too bad its only a minor league deal. This should make them contenders this year. It might just be enough to push them over the top. The scale has been tipped in their favor (pun intented).

Good luck chewing on this one, Sox fans... I know Colon will. Twinkies, that is. Ho hos, maybe.