Angels Prospects: Jo Adell cutting down on SO’s, hitting for better average

A couple of weeks ago, I looked at where the LA Angels are really at with top prospect Jo Adell in his development.

Adell was hitting for great power, but still striking out far too much. His defense seemed to be a little better, but the strikeouts were too killer to bring him up just yet.

Since that writing, Adell hasn’t been perfect, but has improved in a couple of offensive categories he  was struggling in.

LA Angels prospect Jo Adell is striking out less and hitting for a better average in Triple-A.

In order for the LA Angels to bring Jo Adell up, they wanted to see improvement in the strikeout department for the prospect.

In his last 12 (all stats are as of July 16th), he has only struck out 11 times. Now, many Angels fans are probably still not in favor of that number, but that’s a much better rate than his 70 strikeouts in his first 46 games this season for the Bees.

In the Majors last year, he struck out 55 times in 38 games. Seeing him make this improvement in these last 12 games has been nice.

It doesn’t mean he should be brought up. Again, 11 strikeouts in 12 games still isn’t great. But seeing that improve, along with him raising his batting average 15 points up to .277 in these last 12 outings, makes him more intriguing.

Adell still doesn’t look great with his defense, as his fielding percentage sits at .973, but that’s at least better than his Major League fielding percentage of .961. He does have a few errors this season, though, and he can still work on his defense.

All in all, Adell is making improvements, and it’s nice to see.

He’s only hit two home runs in these last 12 games, but I’ll take it if he’s going to not strike out as much and bat 15 points higher. I, and everyone reading this, knows Adell can hit for power.

Adell isn’t ready just yet, but he’s making improvements in the farm, proving that he’s on the right track to Major League stardom someday.