UCSB alumnus Greg Mahle pitching for a spot in Los Angeles Angels pen

The Los Angeles Angels brought in a couple of left-handed specialists for Spring Training hoping to find someone to complement Jose Alvarez in the Angels bullpen.

One of them Christian Friedrich lasted all of three days and never threw a pitch for the Angels due to injury concerns.  The other Rob Rasmussen has been less than stellar this Spring going 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA in four innings pitched and a 2.00 WHIP.  They overlooked a diamond in the rough in their own farm system.

Lefty Greg Mahle who has been in the Los Angeles Angels farm system since being drafted out of UCSB (Santa Barbara) in the 15th round by the Angels in 2014.  The Los Alamitos native has pitched mostly in relief in the past two seasons in Single and Double A for the Angels Inland Empire 66’ers and Arkansas Travelers.

In two seasons Mahle has pitched in 95.1 innings allowing 85 hits with a 3.02 ERA striking out 116 batters with 27 saves and a 1.20 WHIP. Mahle throws side-armed and can bring it up to the low 90’s.

So far this Spring the former Gaucho has shown moments of brilliance in his five outings. In three of the five innings Mahle gave up no runs including his last two outings.  Mahle got a win in relief Friday’s 8-4 win over the Dodgers.

The other two outings Mahle gave up one run in each, but he has a 3.60 ERA with four strikeouts and only one walk in five innings. However, Mahle has impressed the coaches and more importantly manager Mike Scioscia.

“At UCSB he would always change angles and he was very effective doing that in our organization,” said Angels manager Mike Scioscia in an interview with Fox Sports Jose Mota. “He has been opening up some eyes in camp.  he is having a good camp.”

Mahle was a longshot to make the opening day roster as he started training camp, but he is now an intriguing option that may be the second lefty in the pen the Angels want so desperately.

Greg Mahle has so many different deliveries angles that batters will not know what to expect which is the way Mahle likes it.  He has a 4.79 to 1 strikeouts to walks ratio.

“He’s uber competitive.  Greg’s the type of kid that if you went to the water fountain, he’s going to try to drink water faster than you can,” said Bobby Scales the former director of scouting for the Los Angles Angels in an interview with Kelsie Heneghan of MiLB.com. “That’s what you want out of your back-end guys. They don’t care how they’re going to do it, they don’t care what it looks like, but at the end of the day, they want to beat you; that’s his mentality.”

Will Mahle make the Los Angeles Angels roster when the team travels to Anaheim in early April, that remains to be seen.  Here’s hoping that Mahle continues to impress and that we will see him in Anaheim one day soon.