Angels' Walbert Ureña should get Mike Trout's praise framed — it doesn't get any better than that

The Los Angeles Angels haven’t had a ton to get excited about this season, but the emergence of Walbert Ureña has been an absolute delight. The 22-year-old just had another great start and he received some major praise from his teammate, Mike Trout.

On Tuesday night against the St. Louis Cardinals Ureña tossed six innings while allowing just one earned run on six hits and one walk. He struck out five batters on the night. His ERA is now down to 2.78 on the season.

His teammates are blown away by his raw stuff and after Tuesday’s game outfielder Jo Adell relayed the following to reporters:

“He was unbelievable. Mike [Trout] looked over to me in the first and second innings and was like, 'This is, like, 100 mile-an-hour changeups. Disgusting.' You see some of the guys in the [Cardinals’] lineup that have played really well this season that were just baffled at what he was doing.”

For Trout to say something like that about Ureña means a lot. Sure, it’s his teammate, but Trout has been around Major League Baseball for a long time. He’s seen it all and has faced some of the nastiest pitchers the game has ever seen over the last 15 years. He’s not just going to hand out praise like that to anyone, so what Ureña is doing on the mound right now is really special.

Angels would be wise to give Ureña more rest going forward

It should be noted that Ureña’s great start on Tuesday was his first time pitching in a game since July 8. The All-Star break allowed him to get nearly two weeks of rest and the Angels would be smart to rest him even more throughout the remainder of this season; especially since he saw some increased velocity.

Ureña's thrown roughly 95 innings this year between the big leagues and Triple-A and his career-high in innings pitched is 141 — a number he hit last year in the minors. The Angels will be cautious with the number of innings he throws over the remainder of the season, and fans shouldn't be shocked if he receives some added rest over the next couple of months.

While José Soriano caught everyone's attention earlier this season, Ureña now seems like the young Angels pitcher the team can build their rotation around.

No matter what, Trout’s praise of Ureña speaks volumes. If Angels fans had any doubts that the team had a budding star in the young right-hander, Trout put them to rest with his comments. 

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