Inside Pitch

The only thing Angels fans overrate more than their prospects is everyone else's.

This will likely be something that's brought up in the future. The annoying part is that the system is so lacking right now that they had to possibly pick between probability and what might be possible. That lack of depth has me leaning towards adding as many options as possible, it's a terrible place to be.

Already has a TJ in the tank and owes a lot of his success to that delivery. The biggest thing he's got going for him is what he already is .vs a HS kid who is all promise at this point. Prager is without question far more of sure thing, but there isn't anything exciting about him beyond probability.

They have a legit shot go be National Champions. Baseball may not generate money but going to and winning the CWS does up a schools profile. Boosters/alumni are all about that sort if BS, I know I'm preaching to the choir here with you on that.

No you don't, normally you'd see anyone with any semblance of talent compared to Nolan Ryan or Steve Carlton instead. Maronde may be an even better comp than my using Ellis. Both of them were taken in the third round like Prager, both also came out of the SEC, from noted baseball programs. Maronde is probably the better comp due to handedness albeit he likely had the lower profile as a prospect. Still he managed to go from being a Florida Gator to an Anaheim Angel in 18 starts.. He wasn't near ready but he had managed a combined ERA at/near 2.00 in the minors at the time of his call up. He "knew how to get guys out." Mostly the Maronde comp fits because he's a pitch-ability guy... I saw Prager pitch twice, named him as one of maybe five good pitchers in a weak SEC class before he was drafted by the Angels so, it's not like in my case it's Angels homerism ... If they were going going to draft a guy with limited stuff it would have been him. Still doesnt change the reality he is a guy who despite his size isn't known for his stuff (mostly sits 90), and who for the most part was good due to his unusually high release point and ability to spot his slider, which is the pitch the Angels love. If you read any of my posts in the draft threads I even commented I wasn't as put off by some of the picks people were bitching about because for the most part they weren't guys noted for "pitchability", it's not like that's a bad thing but a guy who's got limited stuff in college has a harder go at it as a pro. Basically the college RP guys may still have a shot at being starters and Prager may end up going the other way because his "stuff" is fringe outside of one pitch. Anyway, Nick Maronde/Chris Ellis may not have had illustrious MLB careers but they fit into a similar "good but not great" college pitchers mold who were in fact taken early in the draft Damning if someone is reading more into it than what was being implied. So let me try it again and make it more clear. If I'm the Angels, I have a limited amount of money, and I have to pick between 3/4 pitchers, I'm blowing my wad on the guys with the greatest amount of upside because you can't always teach stuff and pitchers have historically had the biggest failure rate outside of HS catchers. If anything I'd fault the Angels for rolling the dice on a draft eligible sophomore, something I clearly wasn't aware of when I commented on him and a few others corrected me on. To me that was a stupid move given their HS selections. Again, he's a high floor college arm. He's got a better than average shot at reaching MLB. But based on stuff, he's got 5th starter upside. There's value in that, a lot more value than most ppl realize but this isn't a case if them drafting and failing to sign a likely potential star. Dude may be the smartest guy in the room for choosing to go back to school because he still could end adding velocity and raising his profile, but he is what he is currently.

Fwiw, kind of crazy that four of those 46 were in 2018. The Dodgers, Braves, DBacks, and I think Pirates failed to sign their first rounders. All of them were HS guys but still.

It honestly is a lot less weird if he's a red-shirt sophomore. At least he isn't facing the possibility someone offers him $1.00.

Ive seen him listed as both a red shirt sophomore and as a Jr. No idea.

Why do you hate Taco Bell? They actually do have National Championship aspirations too. It really may just be he wants to chase that, which is kind of cool.

Probably too early to say but its extremely rare for a college guy to go back for his SR season. He's getting paid by someone next year to play college ball.

Here me out....

Nobody has said anything remotely close to that. He's a classic high floor guy, I'd argue he stands a better than average chance at making it to MLB, but if they had to fail to sign any of the top 5 picks he'd have been my first choice.

To be fair. Minnie Minoso's skeleton is hitting .296 there.

Maybe, but he's not the guy thats traded for 7 different 2B since 2018 to try to replace Cano.

If he's just super committed to Texas A&M, good for him... otherwise he's put himself into a position where he can be drafted even higher and offered even less money and his only option then would be to not sign and re-enter the draft again the next season. I'm glad the Angels spent the money on the upside -- because they need it.

I know a lot of you guys are losing your shit but Prager was the guy with the least upside, the pitch-ability pick. He's the sort of high floor low ceiling guy we saw plenty of during the Dipoto era. If you need someone to compare him to, think Chris Ellis, with less stuff. It would have been nice to have signed the "safe" pick but given the state of the team I'm happy they signed upside guys.

That's when my casual "dislike" of Disar turned into full blown hate. Disar along with Hollins played the role of clubhouse rat for Terry Collins and became an arbiter of what was and wasn't allowed. He was the guy that made a big stink about Edmonds smiling after a loss and not walking around bitching and moaning. The shit blew up in 99, but it had been brewing from the moment Chili Davis went to KC.

LOL. I think the only person who's more aware of my disdain for Disar than you may be Tank. You've both seen me go off about him way too often. @Tank might remember my rant when I reported he had broken his arm during BP. I was so bent. The most annoying part was that people tried to say I was making it up because it wasn't reported for a few days after it happened.

Disar was an actual black hole offensively and he absolutely hurt the Angels on a yearly basis. He was legitimately a very good defender but consider this, the guy he replaced (Dick Schofield) almost doubled his fWAR in just over 900 more PAs, but if you ask most Angels fans they would tell you that Disar was an upgrade -- he wasn't, not even close. Where pretty much everything Disar did WAS measurable to a degree by fWAR, a lot Molina's game that was much more subjective and yet anyone that watched him knew it was real -- the game-calling being most prominent. I think one of the biggest reasons Disar's awfulness wasn't made more obvious is the fact that he exited the game at the time teams started moving away from the traditional measures towards finding value. He is IMO possibly the most overrated Angel of all time. I've seen people call Disar the Erstad of Angels SS's and it blows my mind. The fact that BBP used to have an award given out to the player eligible for the batting title who went the deepest into the season before getting his first walk will never cease to make me LOL. All that being said Disar was legitimately loved by his teammates. So, as much as I can't stand the public's view of him as a player, there wasn't anyone he played with on those Angels teams who wouldn't have charged the mound in defense of him.

His offensive profile doesn't register with war. His biggest attribute as a hitter was that he didn't K, its what made his not walking less painful. As you pointed out, his career took place at a time when baseball was very offensively driven. He was one of those guys that you looked at and thought, well he's not hurting you so he's fine because his defense is what it is. Dude was undervalued by WAR.

Framing wasn't a part of WAR until 2008, so that dings him since offensively he was pretty limited. They also reworked it a few years back where it framing became significantly more important part of the catcher war formulas.. Ultimately I think his greatest attribute as a catcher was his pitch calling and that simply doesn't show up in the data.

Dude is being exactly who he's been... He's going to end up having a season where he doesn't get lost in the wilderness for 40 years and make people wonder why he can't be that guy all the time. Can't even begun to explain it.

I want this guy to make it just so AO can call him the Nanny.

UM has a legit cult like following in Miami. That's what is suprising.