The Official 2022 Los Angeles Angels Minor League Stats, Reports & Scouting Thread

[Second Base]

I suppose that's why they're called "high risk."

[Angel Oracle]

Seems like Eppler went the Reagins route (2010 first five picks all high risk HS players)?

We saw how that turned out.

 

[totdprods]

9 hours ago, Trendon said:

A large majority of Eppler’s high risk, high upside HS prospects have flopped to this point.

Williams, Duensing, Adams, Jackson, Holmes, Paris, Kochanowicz, Rivera, Calabrese, Knowles, Deveaux, Ramirez, and Vera are all not looking good.

Only ones that have really “worked out” (or at least made it to the majors) are Adell, Marsh, and Rodriguez— and they’ve all had their issues.

Is it due to his team’s scouting, or due to lack of successful minor league development program, or both? 

He’d bear responsibility for both, of course, but if it was the development program that could be a problem if enough pieces of it are still in place.

It’s why the Marsh trade is kinda intriguing to me - was it Minasian making a fair deal for an equitable value at catcher, or was it the first sign of him no longer buying into Eppler’s farm, and the start of a ‘sale’ involving those prospects. 

[Angelsjunky]

11 minutes ago, totdprods said:

Is it due to his team’s scouting, or due to lack of successful minor league development program, or both? 

He’d bear responsibility for both, of course, but if it was the development program that could be a problem if enough pieces of it are still in place.

It’s why the Marsh trade is kinda intriguing to me - was it Minasian making a fair deal for an equitable value at catcher, or was it the first sign of him no longer buying into Eppler’s farm, and the start of a ‘sale’ involving those prospects. 

I wouldn't read that much into it, at least not until we see another trade that supports that view.

My guess is that Minasian saw an opportunity to address a need, and was willing to give up one of Adell or Marsh. I'm guessing he even offered the Phillies their choice of the two for O'Hoppe, and they picked Marsh.

 

[bruin5]

1 hour ago, Angelsjunky said:

I wouldn't read that much into it, at least not until we see another trade that supports that view.

My guess is that Minasian saw an opportunity to address a need, and was willing to give up one of Adell or Marsh. I'm guessing he even offered the Phillies their choice of the two for O'Hoppe, and they picked Marsh.

 

I’m not sure that Eppler makes that trade, or one involving Adell. GM’s can become very invested in their draft picks. 

[tdawg87]

13 minutes ago, bruin5 said:

I’m not sure that Eppler makes that trade, or one involving Adell. GM’s can become very invested in their draft picks. 

Definitely not.

And that's why I think Eppler was a smarter GM.

[Chuck]

Edgar Quero with some love from Baseball America. 

Looks like he may crack the Top 100 prospects list, giving them two (both C's) in the top 100.

[Angel Oracle]

5 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

Edgar Quero with some love from Baseball America. 

Looks like he may crack the Top 100 prospects list, giving them two (both C's) in the top 100.

And Napoli wasn’t this good at age 19.

[bruin5]

24 minutes ago, tdawg87 said:

Definitely not.

And that's why I think Eppler was a smarter GM.

Out of curiosity, why do you think he would have traded his prospects? And, I think the jury is definitely out that he was smarter. 

[tdawg87]

4 minutes ago, bruin5 said:

Out of curiosity, why do you think he would have traded his prospects? And, I think the jury is definitely out that he was smarter. 

I was agreeing with you that he wouldn't have traded Adell or Marsh.

You're certainly right that we don't know if Billy was a better GM but I do like what he did for the minors after Dipoto completely gutted it. 

Eppler was left with an absolute shitshow, and at least made the minor league system respectable. He also got us Ohtani.

Minasian has done nothing with that, so far. We'll see.

[bruin5]

3 minutes ago, tdawg87 said:

I was agreeing with you that he wouldn't have traded Adell or Marsh.

You're certainly right that we don't know if Billy was a better GM but I do like what he did for the minors after Dipoto completely gutted it. 

Eppler was left with an absolute shitshow, and at least made the minor league system respectable. He also got us Ohtani.

Minasian has done nothing with that, so far. We'll see.

Got it. I read it wrong.  It’s still very early, but I’m more confident in Minasian’s drafts than Eppler’s, mostly because there is the potential for more immediate help. And, at least Minasian had the balls to drop Albert and Upton which is hard to imagine Eppler doing. For whatever reason, I feel like Arte is a bit more hands off with Minasian. 

[totdprods]

2 hours ago, Angelsjunky said:

My guess is that Minasian saw an opportunity to address a need, and was willing to give up one of Adell or Marsh. I'm guessing he even offered the Phillies their choice of the two for O'Hoppe, and they picked Marsh.

Still kinda weird addressing what is probably a 2024-2025 need with a guy that is possibly contributing in 2023, especially considering Minasian probably feels a little warmth under his seat. 
That's why it feels to me more like he's moving on from some of the Eppler farm. I know it wasn't an Eppler pick, but he moved on from Jahmai pretty quickly too. 

Strategy-wise, it's all just very disjointed. 

I have not really been impressed with anything Perry has done so far, but, I also can't judge him yet on his drafting and farm development. Too soon. 

It could very well be that he's maintained the same status-quo strategy that Eppler employed for addressing the big-league club - low-risk, relatively low-reward one-year deals for 'name-brand' vets to appeal Arte's desire to field a team that could compete with talent that is recognizable to the casual fan (the Ian Kinsler, Justin Upton, Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard's of the world) - while actually conducting a soft rebuild and cohesion of the minor league development system. And as much as I liked Eppler and am apprehensive of Minasian, it's a little hard to say Eppler's farm has paid off so far. 

If Minasian is drafting well and he actually builds a development system that pays off, we'll be alright. Jury is still out on if Eppler did this, but hasn't looked very promising this season.

I also think Minasian is drafting to trade, tbh. The Braves did that with a lot of success in recent seasons. They had a farm stocked with a bunch of pitching that performed really well in the minors. Sounds very familiar.

[T.G.]

Drafting baseball players has to be the hardest job of any of the major sports...

[totdprods]

From https://theathletic.com/3488409/2022/08/09/mlb-rising-stars-cole-percival-ricky-tiedemann/?source=dailyemail&campaign=601983

• Two years ago, Cole Percival’s future in baseball was up in the air. He had not been selected by a major-league team in the shortened 2020 MLB Draft. The team he had hoped would offer him a contract as an undrafted free agent never made an overture. Then the program he intended to return to at UC Riverside, where his dad, Troy, had become head baseball coach some five years after throwing his final pitch in the major leagues, seemed likely to be cut. He had to make a choice — transfer to a new school and hope he’d be able to re-enter the draft, or latch onto the best team that was willing to sign him for a mere $20,000.

The Dodgers came calling. Percival was a lifelong Angels fan, but the team for which his dad closed out the 2002 World Series and a franchise-best 316 games never approached with an offer. He took the plunge, confident in the Dodgers’ prolific player development system. Percival now is reaping the benefits. He moved up to Double-A Tulsa last week.

[T.G.]

3 minutes ago, totdprods said:

The Dodgers came calling. Percival was a lifelong Angels fan, but the team for which his dad closed out the 2002 World Series and a franchise-best 316 games never approached with an offer. He took the plunge, confident in the Dodgers’ prolific player development system. Percival now is reaping the benefits. He moved up to Double-A Tulsa last week.

Damn.

Edited August 9, 2022 by T.G.

[T.G.]

I remember hearing Alex Anthopoulos  talk about his time in the Dodgers organization and described as being like "attending a master class."

[rafibomb]

 

[Angelsjunky]

5 minutes ago, totdprods said:

Still kinda weird addressing what is probably a 2024-2025 need with a guy that is possibly contributing in 2023, especially considering Minasian probably feels a little warmth under his seat. 
That's why it feels to me more like he's moving on from some of the Eppler farm. I know it wasn't an Eppler pick, but he moved on from Jahmai pretty quickly too. 

Strategy-wise, it's all just very disjointed. 

I have not really been impressed with anything Perry has done so far, but, I also can't judge him yet on his drafting and farm development. Too soon. 

It could very well be that he's maintained the same status-quo strategy that Eppler employed for addressing the big-league club - low-risk, relatively low-reward one-year deals for 'name-brand' vets to appeal Arte's desire to field a team that could compete with talent that is recognizable to the casual fan (the Ian Kinsler, Justin Upton, Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard's of the world) - while actually conducting a soft rebuild and cohesion of the minor league development system. And as much as I liked Eppler and am apprehensive of Minasian, it's a little hard to say Eppler's farm has paid off so far. 

If Minasian is drafting well and he actually builds a development system that pays off, we'll be alright. Jury is still out on if Eppler did this, but hasn't looked very promising this season.

I also think Minasian is drafting to trade, tbh. The Braves did that with a lot of success in recent seasons. They had a farm stocked with a bunch of pitching that performed really well in the minors. Sounds very familiar.

It is also possible that Minasian believes O'Hoppe is a lot closer than that, and is in contention for a 2023 platoon job with Stassi. I mean, Marsh is still essentially a raw prospect, and if you downgrade him a bit from his 60 FV peak, he's probably a 50-55 FV prospect - so about the same as O'Hoppe, plus O'Hoppe plays a more rarified position. 

Anyhow, not saying you are wrong, I just don't think there's sufficient support to go all in on that view. Yet. I wouldn't be surprised, though. At the least, Minasian isn't relying on Eppler's drafts and is taking a different approach.

4 minutes ago, T.G. said:

Drafting baseball players has to be the hardest job of any of the major sports...

Aside from hitting a Jacob deGrom slider.

[BTH]

11 hours ago, Angelsjunky said:

At least a few guys have show promise: Quero, Blakely, and maybe Placencia. I think those were all Eppler guys.

Quero was a Minasian signee.

Blakely and Placencia were signed under Eppler.

[Angelsjunky]

2 minutes ago, Trendon said:

Quero was a Minasian signee.

Blakely and Placencia were signed under Eppler.

Edge: Minasian

Rada and DeJesus were also Minasian signings, and I really like the look of them so far.

 

[BTH]

I heard about the Troy Percival stuff right as it happened in 2020, very disappointing.

That was the year that Arte furloughed a bunch of scouts, released a bunch of minor leaguers, and signed only 1 undrafted free agent. It was also on the heels of him nixing the Joc/Stripling trade and after rumors that the Angels could even punt in the draft.

He should’ve fired Eppler before the 2020 season because it was clear by then that Arte had lost trust in him and had taken over the reins. (Firing Ausmus, hiring Maddon over Showalter, and everything I mentioned above)

[BTH]

Just now, Angelsjunky said:

Edge: Minasian

Rada and DeJesus were also Minasian signings, and I really like the look of them so far.

 

Agreed.

And from what I remember, Quero wasn’t even ranked as a highly thought of international prospect.

They signed him for $200k, well below the bonus of guys like Placencia, Ramirez, Vera, Knowles, Deveaux, etc.

[BTH]

23 minutes ago, totdprods said:

Still kinda weird addressing what is probably a 2024-2025 need with a guy that is possibly contributing in 2023, especially considering Minasian probably feels a little warmth under his seat. 

I think moving on from Marsh made sense, and O’Hoppe represented the best value Minasian could’ve gotten at this point.

The Angels want to contend in 2023, and Marsh was going to be a question mark in 2023. His good defense gives him a higher floor than others, but you still couldn’t pencil him in for league average production in 2023.

Now, they either acquire/sign someone they can pencil in for league average production (or better) in 2023 OR they can roll with the same question mark in LF with Adell/Duggar/Moniak while adding depth to their farm system in the process.

[Angelsjunky]

1 minute ago, Trendon said:

Agreed.

And from what I remember, Quero wasn’t even ranked as a highly thought of international prospect.

They signed him for $200k, well below the bonus of guys like Placencia, Ramirez, Vera, Knowles, Deveaux, etc.

Of course Dipoto takes the cake with Baldoquin.

Anyhow, still hoping that some of those Eppler guys work out. Placencia's season shows promise.

[Angelsjunky]

3 minutes ago, Trendon said:

 

The Angels want to contend in 2023, and Marsh was going to be a question mark in 2023. His good defense gives him a higher floor than others, but you still couldn’t pencil him in for league average production in 2023.

Right, but a "platoon apprenticeship" with Stassi could be a good thing.