Chronicles of the Lads

CATCHING UP IS HARD TO DO
Okay, I'm back.

NOTE: The following post was written before today's game, but Blogger's afternoon siesta kept me from posting it.

Jered Weaver
Jered has made two starts since I last posted; his third comes this afternoon.

So far, I am impressed. He mixes his pitches well and his slider is a plus out pitch. My only real concern with his stuff -- and at this point it's small -- is that is fastball is so straight. You have to think that word of his stuff will get around the league, and batters will be ready to hit a straight fastball. I believe more than ever that he should add a two-seamer to his arsenal, just to keep batters honest. But his control and command is so good that it may be a bit before he really has to start tinkering.

Something else interesting is that he induces flyballs even when he throws his four-seamer at the knees; I thought maybe, based on the many flyballs he's allowed thus far in his professional career, that he played fast-and-loose in the high part of the zone, but it's really just the fact that his fastball has no downward bite.

Even more impressive than Jered's command, to me, is his composure. Could anyone be more diametrically opposed to Jeff Weaver? In his debut start, there was a weak fly to left-center that neither Garret nor Juan Rivera (and with such an extreme flyball pitcher on the mound, why was Rivera getting the call in center instead of The Legs or even Tommy Murphy?) came anywhere near, for reasons unknown to me.

Jeff Weaver, had he would have been on the mound, would have sighed, pouted, and given up six runs. Jered just took the ball and got guys out.

He has had defensive help; but remember, after Vlad hosed a guy at home in his debut for a double play, Jered rewarded his defense with three straight strikeouts. Not bad for a guy with the ceiling of a "three or four starter."

Of course, Jered's success sets in motion a series of questions of what to do once Bartolo Colon returns to the world. Obviously, neither Colon nor Lackey are going anywhere, and though Kelvim Escobar was effective in the bullpen at the end of last season, he's one of our top starters, and top starters are more valuable than middle relievers.

That leaves the brothers Weaver and Ervin Santana to fill two rotation spots. Santana, after a splendid start last night, has his ERA down to 4.32, which is better than the league-average, and his peripherals (51:18 K:BB, only 6 HR in 73 innings) are very respectable. There's no real reason to drop him from the rotation or demote him to AAA.

And despite Jeff Weaver's horrible start, he's put up three consecutive good starts (over which he is 2-1 with a 4.12 ERA and a 12:5 K:BB ratio) and project to be a league-average pitcher over the haul of the long season.

So it's a tough question; I think my preference might be to dispatch Jeff to the bullpen, but I suspect it's more likely Jered be returned to AAA for additional seasoning. He is due for a bad start at some point, but I think he's ready right now.

The Draft
Read about our first-day picks here.

The Angels have a sick need for outfielders in the system, but in the first round seemed to go with draft-the-best-player-available and took Hank Conger, a switch-hitting high school catcher from Huntington Beach. Conger wasn't the first catcher taken in the draft, but his power hitting led many to believe he was the best in the draft. Conger has said he is excited to be an Angel, and it looks like he will save his soul and sign with us instead of going to U$C.

The Angels did take outfielders in three of their five next picks, though one of them is a bizarre and probably wasted pick. That's of UCLA strong safety Jarrad Page, who went in the seventh round, fulfilling an odd bifecta of being taken in the seventh round of both the MLB and NFL drafts.

He was likely underdrafted in the NFL draft by a bit -- he's an athletic if slightly undersized strong safety, though his instincts often bring him to a play a hair's-breath late of the optimal time -- and overdrafted by the Angels. In two years of baseball-playing at UCLA (he did not play baseball this year), he managed a whopping .195 average, which likely converts to a -.048 average in the major leagues. I really doubt he's any kind of prospect at all, and I think it's a longshot that he even signs.

Another outfielder drafted was high-schooler Clayton Fuller (switch-hitter, throws right) out of Texas in the fourth round. He has an oral commitment to Baylor, but is the younger brother of Angel farmhand Cody Fuller, who was a 48th-round pick out of Texas Tech last year. Cody is hitting an unexceptional 281/375/359 at Ranch this year (he's 22), but maybe his presence will induce Clayton into signing -- and maybe that was the plan all along.

One intriguing pick comes from the twelfth round in the person of Jordan Walden, a 6'4'', 215-ound right-handed pitcher from Texas. He's clocked as high as 97 and is reported to have a good curve; he was considered a top talent in the draft before being slowed by a groin injury this past season. Poor man's Nick Adenhart, anyone?

Miscellany
I should have a Watch List Update up tomorrow, if all goes well.