What are the Angels selling at Angel Stadium this season?
The waffles are very good – and, dare we say, a bargain for stadium food. For $12, you get a hot waffle topped with strawberries and cream or S’Mores.
On the field, the last angels are selling hope and faith, the currency of another boring summer. Let the children play and expect people like Jo Adell, Logan O’Hoppe, Zach Neto, Nolan Schueluel It is José Soriano blossom into the nucleus of the next great Angels team.
As Cleveland Guardians in Anaheim this weekend, the Angels only need to take a look at the visitors’ bench to remind themselves of the dangers of relying on a core of prospects.
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Guardians assistant pitching coach Joe Torres was the Angels’ manager top draft pick in 2000. He was part of a touted core of Angels prospects two decades ago, along with infielders Casey Kotchman, Dallas McPherson and Brandon Wood and catchers Jeff Mathis and Mike Napoli.
“As an organization, you just want to accumulate as many leads as possible,” Torres said. “That’s all we are. It’s just a label until you get to the big leagues and play.
“It’s a different animal here. The game adapts to you. You have to find a way to adapt, and quickly. It’s a difficult game. It’s not easy. I don’t care who you are.
In terms of prospect ranking, the Torres group ranked higher than the current group. Kotchman, Mathis, McPherson and Wood were ranked among the game’s top 25 players during their minor league careers.
“It was a very talented group,” Torres said.
McPherson’s major league career was derailed by injury. Wood’s career was derailed by anxiety.
Kotchman played for seven teams in a 10-year career. Mathis played for six teams over 17 years, a career .194 hitter appreciated for his defensive wizardry.
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Napoli had the best career ever, especially after the Angels traded him for outfielder Vernon Wells in a reckless, property-oriented movement. Napoli was the only one to be part of an All-Star team.
The 2001 recruiting class, to which Torres belonged, was not stellar. Of 40 players selected in the first round17 never reached the majors and another 17 had a career Wins Above Replacement below 2.0.
Torres was one of those who never made it to the majors. He was also one of those who never got better after Tommy John surgery, a reminder that no procedure has a 100% success rate.
When the Angels drafted him, Torres said, he threw 97 mph.
After surgery?
“I don’t even know if I saw 93 again,” he said.
The Angels released him in 2006. For the next seven years, he played for minor league teams in eight statesand winter ball in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
He loves coaching, a second career that might never have happened if he had become a star.
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“I think what I went through as a player,” he said, “the failures, the injuries, being a great prospect and everything, and then being on the other side, the minor leaguer trying to find his way. All of this, I felt like I had a lot of experiences and things that I could share and be able to work with the players.”
He has stories to share. Napoli set him up with his wife. He and McPherson coached a high school team together one spring in Georgia.
If he gets tired of training, he has an aptitude for scouting. In 2009, he was playing in the California League, for a team that wanted to turn one of its catchers into a pitcher.
“I was his first catching partner,” Torres said. “I’m older at this point, I’ve been around for a while. I look at him and say, ‘Hey, man, I don’t think you realize how good you are. You could be in the big leagues next year. You are very good. ”
Sure enough, Kenley Jansen was in the big leagues the following year.
This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.
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