Angels Prospect Primer: Bonus Cuts
By tylermaun2
By Tyler Maun/MiLB.com
The discussion surrounding the Angels system has been of its comparative weakness compared to most other systems in the game. Earlier in the month, I took a look at how the Halos are more confident in what they’ve got than most prognosticators are. On a busy day at his Tempe office, Anaheim’s director of Minor League operations, Mike LaCassa, made some time to talk about some standouts in his system for our Angels Prospect Primer and explored more than just the handful of prospects we covered there.
More on prospects Kaleb Cowart and Chad Hinshaw
“Both of them have had really nice springs. They were both in big league camp. Chad is down now, and he had a heck of an impression on the Major League staff. He is the kind of guy who we could see impacting a Major League roster in so many ways based on how he’s a good defender in center field. He’s a good baserunner. He does everything right fundamentally, very versatile. He’s the kind of guy on your roster who could come in in any of those situations and get a bunt down. Meanwhile, his offensive development has been very consistent and impressive. He’s got a good idea of the strike zone. He gets on base at a very high rate, and he also hits the balls in the gaps. He made a impression on our big league staff this spring.
“Kaleb’s track to getting to the big leagues last year was a little bit different. He started off the year back a level in Inland [Empire] and finished from there, went to Triple-A, had by far the best offensive season of his career. He was our Minor League Player of the Year. He finished the year getting some big league time, and right now, Kaleb’s in camp competing up there, playing a little bit of a few different positions to give him more versatility and more of an opportunity to crack that Major League roster. He’s in a good place right now as well.”
On the Angels’ emphasis on improved nutrition and sleep habits for their prospects
“Without getting into the specifics of our internal beliefs, I think you can take reps in the cage all day long. Well why would you do that and ignore your actual strength of physical development which is something a lot of people do. But why would you take care of your body physically and not mentally? There’s so many ways. The way that I explain it to the players is: in every one of these areas of your development, if you could do something right that gives you an extra one percent chance, why wouldn’t you eat properly? Why wouldn’t you take care of your body and your health in all these ways to make yourself as physically and mentally strong as possible. It goes for every single one of us to achieve our max potential. For them, why would we ignore these other areas of their development and take just 100 swings a day as being the only goal to achieving their potential?”
On his working relationship with former big leaguer Mike Gallego, now the Angels’ director of baseball development
“We’re working really well off of each other, allowing each of our strengths to make an impact. I guess if I were to answer the question in one way, it would be open-mindedness. It’s when I have an idea or he has an idea or an A-ball coach has an idea — share the idea and understand that there’s value in it. We can have competing ideas, discussions, debates, but having open-mindedness will allow all of us to learn. I think that his background is the complete opposite of mine, but together we’re addressing the player development system with all sorts of new ideas when we’re able to bounce them off of each other as well as the voices from everyone in the system.”
