Ron Washington's comments show that the last spot in Angels' rotation is wide open

Players who are employed by the same organization are teammates during the regular season, but during camp there is a lot of jockeying for position. The most apparent jockeying for the Angels will be for the last spot in the rotation between Jack Kochanowicz and Reid Detmers. Kochanowicz started the first spring training game against Seattle and Detmers started the second against Cleveland. Kochanowicz posted better results, but fans know that that does not mean much given the nature of spring training. The Angels' skipper, Ron Washington, affirmed that sentiment recently as well.

“After they get to about the third start, you start paying attention to things, and then you start having them face more of a big time lineup, and start deciding things like that,” Washington said.

Ron Washington's comments show that the last spot in Angels' rotation is wide open

Both pitchers threw two innings in their starts, but neither outing will amount to anything when it comes to which pitcher will make the rotation and which will be sent to the bullpen or Triple-A. Once the two youngsters start to be built up to 5 innings in a start and face more big league talent, then the evaluation process will really get cooking.

There was no StatCast data for Kochanowicz's outing, but Detmers showed more of the same numbers-wise. The former first round pick was 93-95mph with solid ride on his four-seam, 87-90mph on his biting slider (his best pitch), 83-85mph on his developing changeup, and 73-76mph on his gigantic curveball. Those are all on par with his career averages velocity-wise for his four-pitch mix.

Kochanowicz has electrifying stuff, which is why he was so effective in his 65.1 innings last season despite barely missing any bats. While the exact pitch is relatively unclear, it sure seems like Kochanowicz's last strikeout was on an elevated four-seam. That exact pitch is exactly what he needs to continue to hone to strike out batters. No matter what coaches say, Kochanowicz absolutely needs to take another step forward in putting batters away via the strikeout this spring.

The sentiment for who the fans want starting seems to be skewed towards Kochanowicz. Kochanowicz is the up-and-comer and Detmers is the longest tenured starter in the Halos' rotation. Fans are more intrigued by the upside of players they are not as familiar with than the guys they have seen over the course of multiple years. While he has been around for a while, Detmers undoubtedly has another level of play he can reach. He definitely needs to show glimpses of that this spring or Kochanowicz will pass him soon.

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