LA Angels Series Preview: AL West Showdown in Mexico

Children of the Grave(s)

We’ve seen so many Angels prospects come up with the team this season due to the poor quality of the veterans who were entrusted with critical roles coming into the season. We’ve seen Zack Cozart effectively replaced by Luis Rengifo who has already shown so much more than Cozart has in his two injury riddled years with the team.

We have also seen higher quality at-bats coming from the young-upstarts than we have from the veterans all through the first month of the season. Even in the case of Justin Upton, who hasn’t been bad because he hasn’t had a chance to play at all, has seen another young upstart rise through his absence and create more success than anyone could have imagined

Los Angeles Angels

The kids are starting to rise through the graves of the veterans who are/have failed to do their job either through injury or just poor play. This isn’t going to be the end of the road either; we still have Justin Bour stinking up the lineup and sooner than later he too will find a young, hungry prospect stealing his job.

Angels Top Prospects Jared Walsh and Matt Thaiss, both lefty first baseman, have both been slaying Triple A so far. Walsh is slashing .278/.377/.536 in 114 PAs while Thaiss is killing the baseball to the tune of .271/.388/.417 in 116 PA’s.

The talents they display are far and above what Justin Bour has done so far for the team. Walsh and Thaiss are gamers in every sense of the word; every at-bat, every pitch, every second of the game they are fully involved and geared up to make an impact.

That’s the kind of attitude the Angels need all over the lineup right now and they’re slowly getting there as the season moves along. If they can piece just a few more parts together, this will be a legitimate ball club to contend with.

Griffin Canning is just the first of many starters who will be fed into the MLB system over the course of the season and we’ve already seen what kind of impact he brings to the team.

Just recently another Angels Top Prospect, LHP Patrick Sandoval, was promoted to Triple A after pitching 20 innings in Double A and absolutely slaying with a K/9 of 14.4 in his short time with the team.

The Angels faulty veteran pieces may be left behind a stinking mess throughout the first month of the season, but that is all going to be a distant memory very soon.