SB Nation User Blog: Zu Long

Angels #1 in 2009 Ultimate Standings

Zu Long — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:57:29 -0000

Angels #1 in 2009 Ultimate Standings

ESPN rarely gives us what we believe is our due, but when given the opportunity to speak for ourselves, plus a few unbiased metrics, we always take our spot among the best franchises in sports. We've been number 1 among MLB teams for several years running, and this year we finally made it to #1 overall. Check it out.

Ichiro to the DL

Zu Long — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:41:37 -0000

Ichiro to the DL

He'll probably be back in time for Seattle's first series against us though.

Prospect updates from Baseball America.

Zu Long — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:40:10 -0000

Prospect updates from Baseball America.

This is a really great quick hits for our minor leaguers, and it answers some questions people wanted to know about.

Hank Conger may be catching at Arkansas after all.

Young Il Jung, that Korean guy we all heard about, had Tommy John surgery and will be back in June.

On the bad news front, Luis Jimenez, one of our rookie league standouts from last year will miss this season with shoulder surgery, which is too bad.

There's other stuff there too, so check it out. While we're on the subject of BA articles, there's a cool write up on Jordan Walden as well.

Torii is fine

Zu Long — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 03:22:27 -0000

Torii is fine

Apparently he has a nasty lump on the side of his face, but is otherwise okay. The Angels will keep him out tomorrow, but don't expect any long term problems.

WBC: USA vs Japan

Zu Long — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 23:54:36 -0000

It's the USA vs Japan in the WBC semi-finals, playing to determine who faces Korea in the Championship game, and who goes back to spring training.

The Team USA is hurting, and without a real first baseman. Tonight they send out Roy Oswalt to face a Japanese lineup led by Ichiro Suzuki. Daisuke Matsuzaka will take the mound for the Japanese.

Questions abound for this game. Who will play first base? Will the US get demolished like Venezuela? Have I reached 80 words yet? Will anyone else besides me post in this topic? We'll find out.

Prospects in Review: Arkansas Travelers

Zu Long — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 14:18:39 -0000

Previous Prospect Posts: Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, Cedar Rapids Kernals, Orem Owlz, AZL Angels, DSL Angels

Sixth in the series. The Arkansas Travelers were the only team to win their league championship, thanks in large part to an offensive boost by Hank Conger, who joined the team for its playoff run.

Arkansas Travelers-

AA Texas League is a lot like the California League, except harder, and not as hitter friendly. By the time you hit Double-A, if you're going places most fans will know your name. Rarely you can get called up straight to the majors from here, ala Ervin Santana. I said before that this team didn't have a whole lot of talent, and it didn't, but they managed to do a lot anyway. Things to keep in mind:

Hitting-suppressive. Arkansas got a new stadium last year, and early returns seem to indicate that it does not like hitters, in much the same way as Cedar Rapids. That said, Double-A can be a weird sort of place, where some guys who struggled earlier suddenly figure it out.
Age Range. 22-23 is okay, lower than that is young, 24 is up there, and 25 is pushing it. You start to get some elder journeymen at this level though, guys who are late-twenties and into their thirties.
Double-A. Starting to close in on the majors, guys here are typically 1-2 years away.
I am not a professional scout, though I have occasionally seen some of these guys in person.

Top Prospects

Mark Trumbo- 1B Born 1/16/1986 (22) - .276/.311/.496/.807, 32 G, 123 AB, 7 2B, 1 3B, 6 HR, 9 BB, 29 K, 1 SB, 2 CS

Trumbo beat up on Rancho Cucamonga much like one might have expected him to, then did quite well in his first 4 games or so for Arkansas before falling off. It's a small sample size, but he did well enough that he might conceivably move up to Triple-A next year depending on what happens to Kendry Morales.

Trumbo is an interesting story. Grew up an Angels fan, and was a power pitching/hitting prospect ion high school, with a 94 MPH heater. He's been developed as a hitter since joining the Angels organization, and while it has been slow going at times, Trumbo has done pretty well for himself. His strikeouts aren't all that high for a power-hitter, and he compares pretty well with Mike Napoli hitting-wise (just look at his picture on milb.com and tell me that doesn't look like Napoli in a Traveler's uni). Doesn't have Napoli's patience, but doesn't have his problems with strikeouts either.

Anthony Ortega- RHSP Born 8/24/1985 (23) - 3.73 ERA, 135 IP, 1.28 WHIP, 49 BB, 83 K

Ortega sort of sprang out of nowhere to become our best pitcher at the AA level, much like Nick Green and Miguel Gonzales materialized in Arkansas last year. Guys will do that, sort of drift through Rancho, not looking like anything special, and then put up decent numbers here.

Unlike Green, Ortega consistently gets groundballs, which may have helped him achieve a degree of success at SLC when he got promoted there late in the year. He also put up a better BB-rate at SLC than in ARK. His BAA jumped though, and if he can't bring it down expect him to struggle next year.

Rafael Rodriguez- RHRP Born 9/24/1984 (24) - 1.86 ERA, 53.1 IP, 1.07 WHIP, 11 BB, 48 K

Rodriguez converted into a reliever last year, and this year managed to put up much better numbers- in many ways, better numbers than the ones Jose Arredondo put up at Arkansas last year, especially that BB-rate. He also improved his ability to get grounders significantly.

However, Rafael got lit up when he tried to make the jump to AAA early on, while teammate Kevin Jepsen made a smooth transition and ended up going to the Olympics. Rodriguez is still fairly young, and we'll probably see him next season if he continues to do well as a reliever in SLC.

Also worth a mention...

Chris Pettit- RF Born 8/15/1984 (24)

Amalio Diaz- RHSP Born 9/10/1986 (22)

Hainley Statia- SS Born 1/19/1986 (22)

Pettit did not, unfortunately, live up to my hype of him. He's got another shot to impress in the upcoming Arizona Fall League though, and hopefully he'll do better there. Diaz is the top nominee for the next Green/Ortega type to appear in Arkansas next season, as he pitched pretty well in High-A, but not much better in Double-A. Hainley is worth mentioning just because his defense is rumored to surpass even Aybar's--now if only he could hit...

Wrapup

Sorry for the long wait on this, I'll try to get the Bees out faster. As I said earlier, not a ton of prospect talent on this team, they won the League Crown mostly by effective use of numerous minor league journeymen, as well as a decent portion of luck. But caveats aside, congrats to the 2008 Texas League Champions. See you next time.

Angels Playoff Promo

Zu Long — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:38:34 -0000

Angels Playoff Promo

Yesterday in the post-game topic I mentioned an Angels postseason promo I saw that was, in a word, awesome. Some others missed it, and were wondering about it. Lo and behold, it's on MLB.com.

"Rays sell out first two home games of NLDS"

Zu Long — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:33:34 -0000

"Rays sell out first two home games of NLDS"

The text above is what the ESPN headline of this article reads as of 9:30 AM central time. It has been that way for roughly 30 minutes now. We'll see how long it takes them to change it.

In the mean time, have a good chuckle and wonder how these people get paid. Screen shot of the headline in the comments.

Baseball America puts out the AZL Top 20 Prospects List

Zu Long — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:34:46 -0000

Baseball America puts out the AZL Top 20 Prospects List

5. Manuarys Correa
12. Tyler Chatwood
18. Terrell Alliman

Only the Giants (who beat the Angels for the league championship) had more prospects.

My own review of our prospects at that level is here. Correa and Alliman made the top prospects cut in my post, but Chatwood got left off entirely, due to a high BB-rate. In retrospect, his high K-rate and relative youth were probably good enough reasons to at least include him on my "worth mentioning" list, though I'm still not sure I'd take him over Amarista.

Prospects in Review: Rancho Cucamonga Quakes

Zu Long — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:04:04 -0000

Previous Prospect Posts: Cedar Rapids Kernals, Orem Owlz, AZL Angels, DSL Angels

Fifth in the series. The Quakes were the only team in our minor league system to miss the playoffs this year, due partly to injuries.

Rancho Cucamonga Quakes-

High-A California League is a player's first opportunity to really get their name on the radar of the general fanbase. It's fairly close to the Angels' Major League stadium, so guys tend to rehab here a lot as well, which in turn brings those fans who feel it's easier to get autographs and such from players while they are rehabbing. Because of all these factors Rancho is where people really start to gauge whether you're "for real" or not. Things to remember:

Launch Pad. This place will jack up offensive numbers and eat pitchers alive if they aren't up to snuff. A hitting prospect needs to hit .850 OPS or higher here to really look solid, though occasionally guys will surprise you. For pitchers, 4.5 or better ERA is considered solid.
Age Range. 21-22 is okay, 20 is young, 23 is creaky and 24 or higher isn't generally a good sign.
High-A. Guys here are typically 2-3 years away.
I am not a professional scout, though I have seen some of these guys play a few times.

Top Prospects

Hank Conger- C/DH Born 1/29/1988 (20) - .303/.333/.517/.850, 73 G, 294 AB, 20 2B, 2 3B, 13 HR, 14 BB, 55 K, 2 SB, 1 CS

As good as those numbers are from a switch-hitting catcher, this season can't really be considered anything more than a disappointment for Conger. To begin with, he missed significant time with injury for a third straight season. He's starting to approach JD Drew or Milton Bradley levels in the injury-prone department, which is bad, though not necessarily panic-inducing just yet (Casey Kotchman was exactly the same way). Perhaps because of those issues, Conger stopped catching for the last half of the season or so, relegated to a role as DH.

The other reason to be disappointed is the numbers themselves. They're pretty good, especially for a twenty year-old at the high-A level, but people were expecting something closer to Brandon Wood or Howie Kendrick than what we got (again, Kotchman is probably the right area). As it stands, Conger can't really hold a candle to either guy. These numbers are closer to what Erick Aybar put up at the same age, in the same place. If you want the ultra-pessimistic interpretation, Jeff Mathis put up better hitting numbers in Rancho than Conger.

However, there IS a bright spot, specifically that Conger picked it up big time in the last three weeks at Rancho, raising his average from .283 to .303, while hitting 8 doubles and 5 homers. He has gone on to make a significant difference in the AA Arkansas Travelers playoffs, becoming the Travs main RBI producer with 12 in 7 games. The deciding game of the championship series will be played tonight at 8pm ET.

Hopefully Conger will pick it up even further next season at Arkansas, though whether he has any future at Catcher remains to be seen.

Jordan Walden- RHSP Born 11/16/1987 - (20) 4.04 ERA, 49 IP, 1.35 WHIP, 24 BB, 50 K

Walden spent two-thirds of the season at Cedar Rapids and thoroughly dominated before being called up to Rancho for his last 9 starts. These stats, while not what he was putting up with the Kernals, are still quite good for a 20-year old. Walden actually improved on his K-Rate while moving up, though his walk rate also increased. His groundball rate predictably dropped a bit, but still remained an encouragingly high 1.76.

Walden possesses our organization's best fastball, regularly hurling 98, and combines that with some good offspeed. With Adenhart's problems at Salt Lake, Walden may have become our best pitching prospect. Despite the brevity of his time here in Rancho this season, I wouldn't be incredibly surprised if he moves up a level to Arkansas next season.

Alexander Torres- LHSP Born 12/08/1987 (20) - 3.91 ERA, 53 IP, 1.53 WHIP, 29 BB, 62 K

Torres is the latest proof that anything can happen during a season, and that sometimes guys just need time to figure things out. Two years ago, Torres put up unremarkable numbers with the AZL Angels, and then in 2007 posted even less remarkable numbers with the same club. He began this season still mired in the AZL... but he didn't stay there. After posting a 1.54 ERA through his first 4 starts, Torres got a break with a call-up to Rancho Cucamonga to fill in a few starts, and impressed enough to stick for the rest of the season. While he was fairly erratic, dominating in one start and getting lit up the next, he still put up impressive numbers for a 20 year old at this level, especially the strike-outs.

Torres managed to post a ground ball rate even higher than Walden's at 2.26, and his K-Rate was better, while being a month younger. Torres was not as good as Walden at keeping men off base though, allowing more hits, and surrendering more walks.

Where Torres goes from here is less certain than Walden, due partially to the erratic nature of his starts, and also to his lack of history in the system. He might find himself with the Travs, but could also conceivably end up staying in Rancho. I have some suspicion that with his small frame (he's only 5-10), Torres might end up becoming a reliever, but only time will tell on that score. It will be interesting to see if he cracks any top-prospect lists.

Sean O'Sullivan- RHSP 9/01/1987 (21) - 4.73 ERA, 158 IP, 1.37 WHIP, 50 BB, 111 K

O'Sullivan almost didn't make it on here, which would have been a shame, seeing as how he's been one of our better pitching prospects that last few seasons. He had a truly ugly first half, posting an ERA over 6 and failing to average even 5 innings per start. However, Sean picked it up big-time post All-Star Break, bringing his ERA down to 3.31, lowering his BB-Rate and BAA, and putting up just over 6 innings per start. The only thing that didn't dramatically improve was his K-rate.

O'Sullivan is also quite young for the league (he turned 21 here in September, but he's only 2 months older than Walden), and his WHIP suggests that he may have simply been unlucky during his dismal first half. Another odd aspect to O'Sullivan's numbers (which I also noted in July) is the large disparity between his home and away numbers, which as we know from our struggles with Santana, indicates a certain level of immaturity in a pitcher that is fortunately correctable.

Also worth a mention...

Peter Bourjos- CF Born 03/31/1987 (21)

Ryan Mount- 2B/SS Born 8/17/1986 (22)

Anthony Norman- LF Born 10/22/1985 (23)

Trevor Bell- RHRP Born 10/12/86 (21)

Two months ago, I'd have sworn up and down that Bourjos would make the prospect list, but he dropped off a cliff post ASB. His batting average dipped to .284 at one point in August, which doesn't sound that bad until you realize that he was hitting .326 in mid-July. He did manage to avert total collapse by going crazy the last two weeks or so, bringing himself back to .295 for the season, but it's still disappointing when you consider where he was. Hopefully he picks it up next year in Arkansas, and he could always get a job as a pinch runner.

Mount is just the opposite. He had an injured April followed by a horrible May, and then was great for the rest of the season and nearly made the prospect list. Norman's problem is that he's old and had a really low batting average for some reason. Other than that he's great. He has good speed, ripping off 36 bases to only 6 CS, great BB-Rate, decent K-Rate, and decent power. Trevor Bell, our first pick in the 2005 Draft, wasn't very good as a starter, but put up solid numbers as a reliever, with a 2.43 ERA in 37 innings.

Wrapup

This 2008 Rancho team was kind of disappointing over-all. There was way more talent on this team than, say Arkansas or Cedar Rapids, but injuries to Conger, Mount, and Matt Sweeney, plus pitching that didn't show up until late in the season, ended up costing the team a playoff spot by one game. Hopefully this group will do better in Arkansas next season, especially if Walden and Torres stick around. Speaking of the Travs, they're up next.