Best of the Minors: Los Angeles Angels

Whenever a top prospect is promoted, fans scurry to find any piece of information they can on the player.  Wading through the information presented can be a pain at times, so for the convenience and viewing pleasure of Bleacher Report fans I present The Best Tools in the Angels Minor League system.  

Now, when you gather around the water cooler during baseball season and a coworker asks if you've heard of this new kid the Angels promoted, you can confidently say yes and even add a short tidbit about him.  

This will make you an office favorite and gain you friends, a promotion and a happy life.  

You're welcome, readers.  You're welcome.

Best Batting Average

1. OF Mike Trout

Nineteen-year-old kids aren't supposed to hit .326 in the biggest pitchers league in all of baseball and against competition several years their senior—but Trout did.  

Don't be surprised if Mike Trout manages to hit over .300 in the major leagues before he's legally allowed to drink alcohol.  

2. 2B/SS/OF Alexi Amarista

Most scouts and fans write Amarista off because of his diminutive size—but make no mistake, this kid is a ball player in every sense of the term.  He hit .292 in AAA as a 22-year-old, and that was considered a down year.  

Amarista has the potential to hit for average in the same manner that Maicer Izturis or Alberto Callaspo do in the majors, and it's hard to complain about a .290 batting average. 

3. SS Jean Segura

Though it didn't show up in his stat line this year, shortstop Jean Segura can and will hit for average in the major leagues if he stays healthy.  

He hit .354 in Rookie Ball, .313 in A Ball and is currently hitting well over .300 in the Arizona Fall League.

Best Power Hitters

1. 1B C.J. Cron

After being selected in the first round by Los Angeles, Cron smashed 13 home runs in only 34 games.  

However, numbers only tell part of the story with Cron.  He's a mountain of a man (6'4", 235 lbs.) with a stable yet menacing look at the plate and smooth uppercut stroke that allows him to lift/drive the ball into the alleys and over walls.  

2. OF Randal Grichuk

It was pretty much a lost season for Grichuk, as he spent the majority of the year rehabbing a wrist injury in Arizona.  Tall and lanky, Randal does not have the look of a power hitter, but being only 19 years old, it is expected he will pack on some additional muscle before long.  

Grichuk's long, fluid stroke is conducive to lifting the ball in the air and, if he matures physically as most scouts expect him to, he could turn into a legitimate major league power hitter.

3. 3B Luis Jimenez

Jimenez has gap power, home run power and batting average all rolled into one package.

Luis rarely walks and swings at pitches he probably shouldn't, but still manages to drive the ball to the deepest parts of the field with regularity.  Such reckless abandon for the strike zone reminds the casual viewer of another great Angel—Vladimir Guerrero.  While Jimenez doesn't have Guerrero's talent, he is equally as entertaining at the plate and should turn into a power hitting major league third baseman soon.

Best Pitch Recognition/Plate Discipline

1. OF Mike Trout

Not until his first call-up did I ever see Trout swing at a bad pitch.  He has a knack for working the pitcher into a hitter's count (2-1, 3-1, 3-0) and then looking fastball and driving the pitch.  

Though he struggled initially, Trout's plate discipline is already greater than every Angel not named Bobby Abreu.

2. OF Kole Calhoun

Calhoun skipped A Ball and went straight into Advanced A Ball after the Angels selected him in the eighth round in 2010, so it would have been understandable if he struggled this year.

Instead, Calhoun was the driving force of his playoff-bound offense and had a K/BB ratio of nearly 1/1.  As a sign of true maturity at the plate, he never tried to do too much. Instead, Calhoun simply stayed with what he knew he was good at, which was working the count until he got his pitch.  

If Calhoun keeps it up, he will carve out a useful role for himself on a major league roster.

3. C Carlos Ramirez

While Ramirez no longer has more BB than Ks, he's still maintained an advanced approach at the plate.  

Like most catchers, Ramirez has excellent pitch recognition and strike-zone judgement, which prevents pitchers from taking advantage of him as they would a less patient hitter.

Fastest Runner

1. OF Mike Trout

He's the fastest baserunner in baseball and has more range in the outfield than any player not named Bourjos.  Trout's speed alone makes him a 30-plus SB threat in the majors, but once he learns to read a pitcher's move like a true professional, that number could double.  

2. SS Jean Segura

While Segura isn't quite as fast as Trout, he runs the bases about as well.  Also like Trout, Segura is a five-tool prospect, though not at the same scale.  

Still, in the speed aspect of the game, Segura shows above-average range from the shortstop position and should steal 30-40 bases a year in the majors.

3. OF Travis Witherspoon

Like the first two players on this list, Witherspoon is a complete athlete and a five-tool prospect.  In his first season outside of Rookie Ball, the speedy outfielder accumulated 46 SB and was only caught 11 times, which shows ability not only to run fast, but also read a pitcher's move. 

Best Fastball

1. LHP Robert Fish

The first time I saw Fish pitch was in 2010, and he routinely dialed it up to 95 mph.  

I was able to see Fish throw several times in 2011, and the radar gun kept lighting up between 97-101 mph.  Either Fish added an extra 2-5 mph on his heater or the guns were hot in the Texas League all season long.  

I believe it was probably both.  Fish's fastball is probably sitting around 97-98 mph now, and the Texas League guns were probably adding an extra 2 mph on the pitch.  Either way, a lefty generating that sort of heat generates a lot of buzz.

2. RHP John Hellweg

As a reliever, Hellweg sat at an already-effective 94-96 mph, yet as a he starter he hit 97-98 in the later innings of a game.  

I'm not sure what the cause of his recent uptick is, but kudos to the Angels management staff for successfully moving him into the rotation.  Hellweg's long frame and smooth delivery suggest he should have no problem remaining a starter.  

3. RHP Loek Van Mil

Van Mil's fastball doesn't have the velocity of other relievers, but the fact that he's over seven feet tall means he releases the ball closer to the plate and has a steeper downward angle than other pitchers.  

So while his fastball may only sit in the low 90s, it's considerably more effective than other pitchers who throw in the mid 90s.  

Best Offspeed Pitch

Curveball

Tyler Chatwood

His performance this season may have been hit or miss, but Chatwood's curveball has always been his go-to pitch.  

Chatwood releases it from the same over-the-top slot as his fastball, and the snap he uses creates a hard spin, which causes a sudden and drastic drop of the pitch.  

The benefit of throwing from the over-the-top slot is Chatwood has the ability to throw the 12-6 variety of curveball, which is less likely to flatten out and is useful against both lefties and righties.  

The best part?  He can throw it for a strike.

Changeup

Trevor Reckling

 Reckling's quirky windup and deceptive delivery means that just about any pitch he throws can become a plus-pitch.  His ordinary 90 mph fastball can be as hard to hit as mid-90s heat.  

His big looping curveball is so slow, the drop seems to go from the eyes of the batter down to the knees.  His changeup shares the same arm slot and most importantly the same arm speed as his fastball, yet the pitch is approximately 10 mph slower, which means the batter cannot read when Reckling will throw a changeup, but must guess correctly in order to hit it hard.

Slider

Garrett Richards

 This award could go to any number of pitchers.  If Fabio Martinez were healthy, it could be his.  Ariel Pena may have the nicest slider in the system.  John Hellweg's looks as good as any as well.  

I chose Garrett Richards' slider because he's closest to the majors and we know for sure that it is extremely effective against major league hitters.  We could speculate that Hellweg's or Pena's would be just as effective, but until they throw it in the majors, there's no way to know for sure.  

Richards' slider is thrown hard and has both a sweeping and dropping movement to it.  Many pitchers can only get away with keeping their slider in the dirt, but Richards' is good enough that he can keep it belt-high or lower and still use it as a strikeout pitch.

Having the ability to throw a strikeout pitch for a strike is often what separates minor league pitchers from major league pitchers.