August 29, 2012; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Astros catcher Chris Snyder (18) reacts after a call strike in the third inning against the San Francisco Giants at Minute Maid Park. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

In lieu of Hank Conger’s troubles throwing the baseball so far this spring, the Angels have signed catcher Chris Snyder to a minor-league deal with an out-clause that will allow him to become a free agent if he fails to make the Opening Day roster. Snyder was released by the Washington Nationals earlier today after being signed to a minor-league contract with them just six weeks ago. The announcement of the two moves came at almost exactly the same time. The Angels had been rumoured to be sniffing around Rockies backup Ramon Hernandez as well and could still be in on him.

Conger is hitting the cover off the ball so far in Cactus League play and the 25-year-old has long been a promising prospect, but his limitations defensively have always held him back—especially since Mike Scioscia has a certain affection for slightly-above-average defensive catchers (see Jeff Mathis and Bobby Wilson).

Conger was to be Chris Iannetta’s primary backup this season, but he is 0-for-6 in throwing out attempted base-stealers and has committed four throwing errors. He even had trouble throwing the ball back to the pitcher this past weekend. For all intents and purposes, Conger appears to be suffering from the Yips. Or Jose Offerman syndrome. Or the Rick Ankiel disorder. Whatever it is, the Angels are clearly concerned.

Having said that, Snyder is not exactly Johnny Bench and although he has a decent Major League track record, he was atrocious in Houston last season hitting a woeful .176/.295/.308 for a 67 wRC+. No amount of good defense can excuse that kind of hitting and Snyder is no gold-glover. He couldn’t even warrant a minor-league deal with the Nationals, who were, granted, basically set at the catcher position with Kurt Suzuki and Wilson Ramos at the Major League level and Jhonatan Solano and Sandy Leon expected to tandem at AAA-Syracuse.

Snyder is nothing more than an insurance pickup in case Conger’s yips don’t go away and it shouldn’t be treated as any more than that. Having said that, Hernandez is a much better option and has become expendable in Colorado with the emergence of Wilin Rosario and Jordan Pacheco and Yorvit Torrealba still on the roster.

Conger is still only 25 and catchers tend to take a bit longer to develop than most position players due to the amount of time they have to spend on things other than basic skills (i.e. learning how to call a game, frame pitches, counsel pitchers, etc.). He still has another year of options, meaning the Angels can send him to Salt Lake to work on his defense if he continues to struggle. Plus, it never hurts to have a third capable catcher on the roster in case of injury—something that affects catchers more than most other position players. Right now, outside of Iannetta and Conger, the Angels have John Hester and Luke Carlin—not exactly the type of catchers I’d want to see getting significant playing time.

And it’s not as though Conger has done anything at the Major League level as of yet that should guarantee him a roster spot—he has a career .272 wOBA in 253 plate appearances. I understand the inclination to give him regular playing time at the Major League level, but the Angels actually have a better option right now in Iannetta. It’s not like they’re playing Jeff Mathis over him.

Either way, unless the Angels do get a more experienced backup like Hernandez, Conger is likely to see a decent slice of playing time whether Snyder makes the team out of training camp or not—unless the yips never go away.

Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

The title of this post is something Los Angeles Angels fans might be asking themselves in 2013. They hope they don’t. However, as the current starting rotation stands, there are still a lot of question marks that won’t be answered until well into next season.

Until then we have projections!

Over at Fangraphs, they have begun to release Dan Szymborski’s ZiPS projections. Today they dropped projections for the Washington Nationals where Dan Haren was projected to have a 2.9 WAR in 2013. A nice improvement from his disappointing 2012 campaign.

ZiPS also projected an ERA+ of 102 and a FIP of 3.50 for Haren during his 2013 campaign. All improvements from 2012 as well.

If these projections come to fruition, the Nationals would have a nice deal in Haren paying $4.4 million per win from him. Not bad considering the Angels are dropping $7.5 million in 2013 on Joe Blanton who, according to Fangraphs, has averaged 1.7 WAR the past four seasons.

Should we ask the question now or later?

Of course, ZiPS doesn’t take into consideration everything. For example, it doesn’t calculate Dan Haren’s bad back that has plagued him for two years now and landed him on the “day to day” list a couple times since 2011 as well as a 15-day DL stint in 2012.

This is also, interestingly, the second time Jerry Dipoto has rid Dan Haren from a team as a general manager. The first time being the trade that originally brought Haren to the Angels in the first place when Dipoto was filling in as GM for the Diamondbacks.

Which leads one to wonder if there is something about Dan Haren that Dipoto knows or sees that we aren’t catching.

Or maybe Haren is just a mean, mean man. Probably not. But maybe.

When the Los Angeles Angels ZiPS projections are released we’ll return to see how they stack up against players that left the Angels this off-season.

Rookie Mike Trout is one of a handful of Angels playing for the Scottsdale Scorpions in the Arizona Fall League. (Getty Images)

Three games into the Arizona Fall League season, it’s apparent that one team is standing out above the rest. Even at 1-2 the Scottsdale Scorpions have created quite a buzz in the Valley, not by what they’ve done, but by who they have. Affiliated with the Angels and Nationals among others, the Scorpions are home to the top two prospects in baseball, Washington’s Bryce Harper and Mike Trout from Los Angeles.

Harper, 18, split the season with Single-A Hagerstown and AA Harrisburg totaling .297/.392/.501, 17 HRs and 26 SBs at both stops while being the youngest player in the league. Trout, meanwhile, found his way into the 2011 Angel outfield. The 20-year-old was called up on two separate occasions this season after spending two years in the minors. Trout (.220/.281/.390) struggled early and late as he appeared overmatched. In August, however, his potential was on display during an eight game stretch (.400/.464/.920, 4 HRs). The Angels anticipate this particular hot streak, along with his performance at Double-A Arkansas (.326/.414/.544 in 91 games with 42 extra-base hits and 33 stolen bases), as a sign of things to come for the Minor League Player of the Year and have sent Trout to Scottsdale for more seasoning this fall. He had three hits in last night’s debut, a 7-3 Scorpion victory over the Phoenix Desert Dogs. (more…)