Advanced Rookie Ball Orem: 18 wins, 18 losses
Dan Tillman, rhrp - (8 appearances) 1 W, 8.2 IP, 4 hits, 0 ER, 14 K/1 BB
Our 2010, second round pick is dominating the Pioneer League with a K-rate better than even the 13 K/9 he posted at Florida Southern. He has a solid fastball/curve combo, and is a candidate to move very quickly next year as a set-up man/closer.
Donn Roach, rhsp - (6 appearances) 1 W, 15.1 IP, 12 hits, 1.76 ERA, 16 K/3 BB
The Halos turned Josh Spence (3rd round, 2009) into Roach (3rd round compensation pick, 2010), and given Spence's injuries over the 2010 season, this might have been a lucky break. Roach sits in the low 90's with a fastball that he keeps down enough in the zone to induce a lot of grounders - his groundball rate is an insane 63%, though the sample size is small. He also throws a splitter that was his best pitch before the curve took off this year (anyone out there know how to throw a splitter properly? When I throw them they have no spin, which I think makes them a forkball... Anyway, Haren inspired me to go back to the pitch, and I threw one yesterday only to watch a friend jack it about 350 feet... It was an exact replay of Ortiz' Monday night smash). I suspect he'll eventually convert to relief, but has the three pitch combo to stick in the rotation for a while yet. Check out the curve in the video below (hat tip, www.minorleagueball.com).
Kole Calhoun, RF - (78 AB's) .282/.418/.538 with 4 dbl, 2 trpl, 4 HR, and 18 K/17 BB
The Angels scooped Calhoun up in the ninth round of this year's draft, but we didn't see him until this month because he was an integral part of ASU's playoff run. At 5'11", 190 lbs, he's short and stocky, and at nearly 23 old for the league. Still, he can hit. This is what John Kilma at Baseball Beginnings had to say about him:
Calhoun faced Gerrit Cole three times the night I saw him and was the only guy in the ASU lineup I thought that had the bat speed to adapt and speed up to Cole. The ASU Kole doubled off the UCLA Cole, and it wasn't cheap. It was clean and squared up, would have been a double with wood. For me, Calhoun has the bat speed to kill big league mistakes, which is what it's all about. Do that and they won't care how you run or throw.
Brandon Decker, 1B, OF - (48 AB's) .271/.352/.542 with 4 dbl, 3 HR, and 10 K/5 BB
Decker's another guy whose bat is going to have to carry him. At 6'3", 235 lbs, he's big but lacks foot speed, limiting him defensively to first base and maybe left field as a pro. He hit 22 HR's in 63 games with Valdosta State University as a junior in 2009, then followed that up with a .426/.560/.858 senior season with 21 HR's and a 29 K/43 BB ratio. Hopefully we'll see more of that power show up soon.
AZL Angels: 12 wins, 18 losses
Randal Grichuk, RF - (26 AB's) .346/.393/.808 with 2 dbl, 2 trpl, 2 HR, and 5 K/ 2 BB
Grichuk turns 19 in August. He's nearly a year and a half - a lifetime in the development of a teenage athlete - younger than the average age of the Arizona competition, yet he's slugging .808 in the circuit. That's higher than the .711 OPS he produced in the Midwest League over a month and half, but there he's a full two and a half years younger than the competition, so we can cut him some slack. Glad to see him healthy and producing.
Taylor Lindsey - (87 AB's) .299/.333/.425 with 5 dbl, 3 trpl, 5 SB and 14 K/ 4 BB
Until we sign Cowart - and the recent trades make it imperative we sign Cowart - Lindsey is the most polished prep bat we acquired in 2010. As you can see, he's not terribly polished. That said, he's heating up as July wears on, showing decent gap power, and playing solid defense. He could be a good one, a Ryan Mount type with less HR power but a better all around bat.
Joe Melioris, rhsp - (6 appearances) 1 W, 15.1 IP, 18 hits, 3.52 ERA, 17 K/2 BB
Here's an interesting guy. At 6'10", 240 lbs, the 20 year old makes for an intimidating presence on the mound. He went undrafted this year, but the Halos approached him following the draft with an offer, and now he's in Arizona. I don't know anything about his stuff, but the K to BB ratio is encouraging and you have to love his size.
Chevez Clarke, CF - (69 AB's) .246/.325/.391 with 3 dbl, 2 trpl, 1 HR, 4 SB and 20 K/ 6 BB
Yeah, I know; he's not exactly lighting the world on fire. His debut doesn't rank up there with Trout's or Grichuk's, at least so far, but there are some positive signs: in his last 10 games, he's hitting .289/.372/.421 with a 9 K/4 BB ratio, and he's handling righties just fine with a .260/.363/.460 line. Like Lindsey, he may need some time, but he's got the tools to be a great ballplayer. If everything breaks right, think Pete Bourjos but better production against righties.
Dominican Summer League Angels: 26 wins, 17 losses
Glen Beltran, RF - (52 AB's) .327/.407/.385 with 1 dbl, 1 trpl, 2 SB and 8 K/ 6 BB
He's big, he's strong, he handles the strikezone well, and he's still just 18. He's not showing a whole lot of power yet, but with his 6'2", 220 lbs frame, it should come.
Eswarlin Jimenez, lhsp - (3 starts) 2 W, 20.2 IP, 12 hits, 1.74 ERA, 22 K/9 BB
We tracked this guy a little bit last year. He's still 18 for a couple more months and should be heading stateside in the coming season. If you need more encouragement, check out the 2.00 GO/AO.
Steve Mateo, 3B - (32 AB's) .313/.378/.344 with 1 dbl, 5 K/ 4 BB
Here's another kid with a big, promising frame. He's still just 17 and the Halos have him batting 3rd in a much older line-up. At 6'2", 188 lbs, he has a highly projectable frame, and is already showing signs of an intuitive understanding of the strikezone. He could be a great find.
Daniel Hurtado, rhsp - (4 starts) 1 W, 20 IP, 18 hits, 2.70 ERA, 17 K/4 BB
Hurtado just turned 18 last Saturday and the numbers look very good even in the pitcher-friendly context. You won't find him, Mateo, Jimenez, or Beltran making any Baseball America headlines (yet), but their stats, age, and projectable frames sure look encouraging.
0 recs | 20 comments
The Curveball is freakin insane!!
It almost looks like it has slurve action and with as much break as the video indicates, you’d think he’d either loop it like Reckling or throw it especially hard like Jepsen, but this Roach character does neither.
Intriguing.
As far as Lindsay goes, if Ryan Mount is his comp or even his ceiling, that doesn’t give me much hope. I played alongside Mount for a while, and while he was gifted, a high draft pick, he was not. Even today, the talent is there. He could have ended up the next Chase Utely, but he really can’t put it together, even in his second year in AA.
Halowood - July 28, 2010
Sometimes the Mounts of the world turn into Utley
Sometimes they remain Mounts.
And sometimes they flame out in Low A.
The Halos took an interesting approach this year, emphasizing volume over polish. They did the same thing with position players when they had a ton of picks in the 2005 draft – that effort produced Pete Bourjos – and more recently with college pitchers in the 2010 draft – Richards, Kehrer, and Corbin. The Halos FO has the moxy to believe that they can turn unrefined athletes into baseball players. I respect that. It’s a lot of fun to cover, at any rate.
rghan - July 28, 2010
It's what the Phillies do
Dominic Brown is looking pretty good for them right about now
HaloFanInDC - July 28, 2010
The braves are very good at it too
rghan - July 28, 2010 via mobile
Popcorn in the pan - Jerry McGuire.
Personally, I don’t understand the volume approach. Why grab Lindsay so early when he more than likely would have been available in the 2nd round. Why grab Bolden when he may have been available 3 or 4 rounds later?
Tons of athletes, no polish. This organization doesn’t have the greatest track record at developing superior athletes with the polish to be major leaguers. That’s great the Phils and Braves can do it. But I’ve seen nothing so far that suggests we can. Brandon Wood never developed the necessary polish, Ryan Mount (so far), it’s taken Kendrick 5 years in the bigs to even have a respectable OBP, Bourjos and Trumbo are still lacking.
It just looks like a mistake to me. But what do I know? I’m sure excited about Chevy Clarke though.
Halowood - July 28, 2010
This is a totally rational argument
But neglects some big hits: One of the greatest products of the farm system in team history, Garrett Anderson, derived from this approach. The Halos got ahold of Figgins late, but turned him from raw athlete into a baseball player. Aybar was signed as an all-tools kid, few folks thought Napoli would ever get the K’s under control, Morales’ approach has come light years since he defected, Bourjos is turning into quite the baseball player, Conger’s polish is exponentially better than it was two years ago (though I’ll admit, he was thought to be a polished bat entering the 2006 draft), etc…
On the pitching side of things, the Corbin/Richards/Kehrer/Spence bulk crop of college pitching was turning out nicely (50% becoming legit prospects? Yes please!) before the trade knocked that down a bit. Still, Richards living up to his potential and Haren staying healthy for a couple of years would be a huge payout from this crop.
They have had their successes.
rghan - July 28, 2010
All are good examples, except Anderson....
The mid 90’s were a very different time for the Angels organization. For the current, modern regime I’d look to Aybar, Figgins, Morales and potentially Conger as success stories.
I have much more confidence in this organization’s ability to develop pitchers over hitters. After dealing all the arms we have in the last week, we still have Bell, Reckling, Chatwood, Richards and Martinez as probable/potential major league starters.
Were we to trade away 6 hitters in one week, we’d have nothing left. I’m not even sure our organization has 6 legit minor league prospects that could become regulars.
Halowood - July 28, 2010
No Ryan Bolden and his amazing BB/K ratio?
Talk about a raw athlete….i don’t think we’ll be hearing about this guy for years, if not ever
HaloFanInDC - July 28, 2010
Heh
He’s improving. A little. When he makes contact, it’s solid, which is a good sign. He could surprise us.
rghan - July 28, 2010
Kalhoun sort of a Rivera comp?
HaloFanInDC - July 28, 2010
Kalhoun is smaller, lacks the great arm and ultimately has less raw power
He also has less speed than Rivera had early in his career. Other than that, it’s a decent comp :-)
Kilma’s point was that Kalhoun hits left-handed (a plus) and has the bat speed to sting good pitching, if not quite in a Prince Fielder kind of way. I think he used Matt Stairs as a comp, which is still pretty good for a ninth round, senior pick. He’s a long shot.
rghan - July 28, 2010
Splitter
does have no spin more of a tumbling action. Very damaging to your arm if not thrown properly. Keep your wrist stiff through the motion and bury the ball into the back of your palm. Basically show the palm of your hand to the hitter and keep your index middle finger pointed upwards. Also, Grichuck should be moved up like yesterday. And if Rancho makes the playoffs why not move him up to get a little taste and provide some pop.
angelskid2210 - July 28, 2010
Sweet, then I have a splitter... I thought splitters had more spin, and the forkball had more knuckleball action
If it only had a bit more tumble, I could have been a contender… I did get one ugly swing and miss before he launched it the next at-bat.
I think they’re letting Grichuk build his confidence back up, remind himself how good he is. They’ve also shorted Richard Cates and Terrell Alliman at-bats this year – Cates especially waseffective for Orem in 2009 – so giving them time to play allows the Halos to essentially keep working out in the system until the next holes open up.
rghan - July 28, 2010
Yeah that sounds like a good idea for grichuk
do you think he ever catches Trout in progress or is he always going to be one step behind because he has the same weakness a lot of other Halos prospects have had, the K’s.
angelskid2210 - July 28, 2010
His value is in his power
That generally takes longer to develop, so yeah, I think he’ll progress more with the next wave of talent than with Trout, who’s just a freak. Also projecting Grichuk’s power tool out to be MLB caliber is a more risky proposition than projecting Trout’s all-around game to have value. He just comes with a higher bust risk.
rghan - July 28, 2010
I thought we might hear a little something about Heid or Witherspoon.
I think you trailered Heid the other day in a post, suggesting you might give peek at why he’s interesting.
Max Russell also looks to be dealing pretty well.
Turks Teeth - July 28, 2010
Yeah, Heid's dropped off these past couple of weeks
As has Witherspoon. Neither of them have broken the .800 OPS barrier in July, though they were red hot in June.
Witherspoon has major league tools. He’s fast, strong, and physical – 6 HR’s and 10 steals without getting caught in 142 AB’s tell that part of the story – but clearly he’s playing with his approach. His slash line is terrible over the past 10 games, but he’s worked a 6 K/4 BB ratio in that time. He could still figure it out.
Heid was a senior and clearly has a polished approach – I hope he’s a Willits/Lopez/Pettit type overachiever – but hasn’t been quite as effective these past couple of weeks. I think the big question for him will be how good his speed plays in pro ball. He was caught stealing an awful lot last year at Gonzaga, and without the SB’s he’s Brad Coon instead of Reggie Willits.
rghan - July 28, 2010
And I totally agree about Max Russell
He’s getting some national attention now too – I think Baseball Prospectus gave him a shout out a couple of weeks ago. A 21 year old lefty with decent stuff who was totally off of the prospect radar entering the draft?
Thank God for Tom Kotchman.
Nevertheless, he tossed a stinker a couple of weeks ago, whereas it was time to give kudos to Roach and Tillman.
rghan - July 28, 2010
Grichuk.......
atta boy.
norcaliangelsfan - July 28, 2010
Apologies - Got some info on Decker wrong
I thought Decker had transfered from Valdosta State University to San Diego State in his final, senior year. That was incorrect – it was another Decker who popped up there. He stayed at Valdosta and put up a fine senior season.
rghan - July 28, 2010
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