Draft Reviews: Los Angeles Angels

by
May 15, 2009

2008 Draft Slot: 74th overall (Second round)
Top Pick: Tyler Chatwood, RHP, California high school
Best Pick: Tyler Chatwood
Keep an Eye On: Michael Kohn, RHP, College of Charleston (13th round)
Notes: Michael Kohn has posted excellent pro numbers as a reliever and he has the stuff to succeed: A mid-90s fastball and potentially plus breaking ball. He’s allowed just seven hits and five walks in 17.1 innings so far this season in low A-ball. Tyler Chatwood has actually posted solid numbers even though he has no idea where the ball is going (2.85 ERA, 7.80 BB/9). Just imagine what he could do with some polish.

2007 Draft Slot: 58th overall (Supplemental first round)
Top Pick: Jonathan Bachanov, RHP, Florida high school
Best Pick: Trevor Reckling, LHP, New Jersey (Eighth round)
Worst Pick: Trevor Pippin, OF, Georgia junior college (Fourth round)
Notes: Prep right-hander Matt Harvey, considered a first-round talent who would be a difficult signing, fell to the Angels in the third round and would have been a great player to have. But he headed to the University of North Carolina instead. Top pick Jonathan Bachanov had Tommy John surgery and has yet to make an official pro appearance. Trevor Reckling has become the top pitcher in the system. The soon-to-be 20-year-old hurler is already dominating in double-A.

2006 Draft Slot: 25th overall
Top Pick: Hank Conger, C, California high school
Best Pick: Jordan Walden, RHP, Texas high school (12th round)
Worst Pick: Clay Fuller, OF, Texas high school (Fourth round)
Notes: With no second-round pick and unable to come to terms with its third-round pick, the Angels chose a raw prep outfielder in Clay Fuller and appear to have missed on him. He strikes out way too much and is hitting .220 while playing at high-A ball in his fourth pro season. If he can stay behind the plate (a big IF), Hank Conger could provide above-average offense for the position. The Angels were extremely lucky to find a pitcher of Jordan Walden’s caliber in the 12th round, although he is currently injured.

* * *

2009 Draft Slot: 24th overall
Draft Preference (2006-08): Prep hitters and pitchers
MLB Club Need: Starting pitching, Third base, First base
Organizational Need: Outfield, Third base, Second base, Left-handed pitching
Organizational Strength: Shortstop? Maybe catcher??
Notes: The amateur draft has not been an area of strength in recent years for the organization. The club has thumbed its nose at the draft while preferring to build a winning organization through free agency and trades. The club, though, is running out of tradable commodities. Despite losing its 2009 first round pick (32nd overall) for signing reliever Brian Fuentes, the club actually gained two higher picks (24th, 25th) after losing free agents RHP Francisco Rodriguez and 1B Mark Teixeira. The club also has three supplemental first round picks, so now is the time to rebuild the farm system.

You Aren't a FanGraphs Member
It looks like you aren't yet a FanGraphs Member (or aren't logged in). We aren't mad, just disappointed.
We get it. You want to read this article. But before we let you get back to it, we'd like to point out a few of the good reasons why you should become a Member.
1. Ad Free viewing! We won't bug you with this ad, or any other.
2. Unlimited articles! Non-Members only get to read 10 free articles a month. Members never get cut off.
3. Dark mode and Classic mode!
4. Custom player page dashboards! Choose the player cards you want, in the order you want them.
5. One-click data exports! Export our projections and leaderboards for your personal projects.
6. Remove the photos on the home page! (Honestly, this doesn't sound so great to us, but some people wanted it, and we like to give our Members what they want.)
7. Even more Steamer projections! We have handedness, percentile, and context neutral projections available for Members only.
8. Get FanGraphs Walk-Off, a customized year end review! Find out exactly how you used FanGraphs this year, and how that compares to other Members. Don't be a victim of FOMO.
9. A weekly mailbag column, exclusively for Members.
10. Help support FanGraphs and our entire staff! Our Members provide us with critical resources to improve the site and deliver new features!
We hope you'll consider a Membership today, for yourself or as a gift! And we realize this has been an awfully long sales pitch, so we've also removed all the other ads in this article. We didn't want to overdo it.




 

Marc Hulet has been writing at FanGraphs since 2008. His work focuses on prospects and fantasy. Follow him on Twitter @marchulet.

4 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
R M
16 years ago

Chatwood’s walk rate is high enough to make Daniel Cabrera gasp….does he have any chance of working through his control issues, especially if he is running into them at such a low level?

0
ineedanap
16 years ago
Reply to  R M

He does.

He was drafted out of high school. Plenty of time.

0