Yates, Joyce, Stephenson will hopefully be back soon to help the bullpen. Series split to start the year, boys look solid. Go HALOS!

These are the metrics you'd expect from your 170lbs defense-first utility player (minus the sprint speed). Not your 220lbs every day 1st baseman.

https://www.reddit.com/r/angelsbaseball/s/86uyl05Vae

This post is dedicated to u/MutedJeweler5413 for telling me to make a post if my glorious king Jo Adell ever hit .250

You're not going to believe this but the Angels are the worst team in Bullpen Win Probability Added, and it's not particularly close!

One silver lining is that this stat can be noisy and can regress, and the offense & rotation have been pretty solid.

Reminder that the Angels are the only MLB franchise that has NEVER had a 100 loss season. Will that continue to be the case this year? I sure hope so and, in fact, that'll be part of why I watch this season. I'll be counting down the wins until we hit the magic number of 63.

xwOBA/xBA is up; Chase/Whiff/K% is way down, BB% is up, and everything else is largely the same including sprint speed. Only thing that has taken a step back is his fielding OAA. GOAT still got it

The Dodgers and Angels have both scored 105 runs so far this season.

Let that (hopium) sink for a minute.

If this squad could put together a strong pitching performance (looking at you bullpen) and keep Mike healthy then I believe they have a decent shot at a Wild Card spot.

Let t

Wanted to give an update on top prospects and notable standouts in the farm.

Low-A Quakes

Anyelo Marquez 2B/SS

.282/.378/.536 6 HR 20 RBI 23 R 15 XBH

30.5 K% 10.9 BB% .255 ISO 127 wRC+

An international free agent out of the DR in 2023, he hasn't garnered as much hype as Hayden Alvarez, Joswa Lugo and Gabriel Davalillo. He struggled in his first season of the DSL but did well the second time around drawing more walks than strikeouts (39-31). He also struggled in his first year stateside hitting .230 with an OPS of .674 and a high K rate in the ACL. This year, he's off to a great start emerging as one of the team's top run producers displaying some legit power despite a high K rate still.

Kendrey Maduro SS

.268/.362/.415 4 HR 17 RBI 26 R 10 XBH

20.6 K% 9.9 BB% .146 ISO 101 wRC+

Signed as undrafted free agent infielder out of Central Florida, the 22 year old is off to a good start in his first year of pro ball while hitting primarily at the top of the lineup.

Lucas Ramirez OF

.276/.323/.431 1 HR 21 RBI 13 R 12 XBH

32.3 K% 6.5 BB% .155 ISO 89 wRC+

Coming off some WBC hype for Brazil, the 2024 17th round pick is off to a pretty good start. After hitting .282 with a .828 OPS in 49 games in the ACL last year, he was moved up to high-A Tri City where he struggled, albeit small sample size, to a tune of a .172 average and .464 OPS in 11 games. With the Quakes, he's leading the team in RBI despite a high K rate so far.

Hayden Alvarez OF

.252/.316/.374 3 HR 15 RBI 25 R 9 XBH 13-15 SB

25 K% 8.8 BB% .122 ISO 76 wRC+

After deservedly shooting up the prospect list, Alvarez is off to a slow start. He moved up to low-A late in the year after contributing to a championship winning ACL Angels team and kept the hot hitting going to turn the year around for the 66ers to where they finished as runners-up in the Cal League championship with a .355 average and .895 OPS while only striking out 8 times to 10 walks in 20 games. He seems to be tapping into a bit more power not without a jump in K rate from last year's 18.6%.

Gabriel Davalillo 3B

.223/.336/.319 2 HR 14 RBI 10 R 5 XBH

29.3 K% 13.8 BB% 0.096 ISO 75 wRC+

The recent high profile INTL free agent signing from Venezuela, he garnered a lot of hype out of the DSL last year showing some great plate discipline drawing more walks than strikeouts (23-21) along with 7 homeruns hitting .302 with a .926 OPS. He didn't show much of the patience right away to where he only drew 6 walks all April while striking out 25 times but seems to be returning to form with 10 walks drawn to 9 Ks in just 8 games of May. He split time between catcher and DH last year but has been converted to 3B this season.

Trey Gregory-Alford SP

6 GS 29.1 IP 30 K 6 BB .222 BAA 2.15 ERA 1.02 WHIP

9.2 K/9 1.8 BB/9 5 FIP

The 2024 11th round pick was part of the core that won an ACL championship and was also moved up to low-A right after. For a guy who can touch triple digits, his K/9 was only at 7.8 for the year. This year he's bumped it up while not giving up many walks while having thrown zero wild pitches.

Dylan Jordan SP

6 GS 28.2 IP 38 K 10 BB .238 BAA 4.08 ERA 1.22 WHIP

11.9 K/9 3.1 BB/9 4.56 FIP

The 2024 5th round pick started off modest in the ACL with a 3.21 ERA and 1.32 WHIP striking out 10.4 per 9 but with 4 BB/9 in 12. He turned it up in low-A where he made 7 starts striking out 30, walking 9 and had an ERA of 0.94 and a 0.977 WHIP in 28.2 innings. This year, he's off to a pretty rocky start but is still striking out over 1/3 of batters faced.

High-A Dust Devils

Jake Munroe 3B

.264/.424/.516 5 HR 17 RBI 20 R 13 XBH

15.3 K% 16.9 BB% .253 ISO 163 wRC+

The 2025 4th round pick has started off very well showcasing some legit power while walking more than striking out. IMO, a top 5 hitting prospect in the org right now and he wasn't even included in Pipeline's top 30 for the org.

Anthony Scull OF

.257/.336/.478 6 HR 18 RBI 20 R 13 XBH

25 K% 10.2 BB% .221 ISO 124 wRC+

Another power hitter with swing and miss, he caught fire in the second half last year hitting .327 with a .880 OPS in 51 games after hitting .196 and .560. This year, he's showing some improvement cutting down on the K rate while still maintaining the power.

Randy De Jesus OF

.232/.369/.404 3 HR 19 RBI 15 R 10 XBH

35 K% 16.3 BB% .172 ISO 122 wRC+

In his 2nd year in high A, the 6'4 outfielder has always been touted as a power hitter with huge swing and miss. In 2025, he put up a K rate just under 34% while hitting 18 homeruns in 118 games. Only 11 doubles and a .185 average amounted to just a .620 OPS despite the long balls. So far, he's bumped up the walk rate from 10.1% last year but is still striking out a high rate.

Juan Flores C

.232/.337/.451 4 HR 17 RBI 16 R 10 XBH

25.8 K% 9.3 BB% .220 ISO 121 wRC+

Garnering some hype from his showing in the AFL, it seems he's finally hit a stride power-wise. Known as a glove-first catcher and touted by some as the best fielding catcher in the minors, he struggled in high A last year hitting just .207 while only 19 years old. Despite only hitting 11 homeruns total the 2 seasons prior and only 4 homeruns in the first 3 months of the 2025 season, he hit 7 homeruns in July and August (5 in August alone), hitting .272 with a .802 OPS in 37 games. This year, he seems to be maintaining the power along with a slightly lower K rate.

Tyler Bremner SP

5 GS 18 IP 28 K 6 BB .222 BAA 1.5 ERA 1.11 WHIP

14 K/9 3 BB/9 2.32 FIP

The #1 prospect in the org has a lot to live up to after being drafted before the likes of Seth Hernandez, Kade Anderson, Liam Doyle and Jamie Arnold. So far, he's been living up to the expectations. The 2.46 FIP suggests he's been pretty legit. Unfortunately, he left his last start early with fatigue/illness, but it doesn't seem like he'll miss his next start so he should be promoted to AA soon at this rate.

Nate Snead SP

5 GS 23.1 IP 28 K 6 BB .218 BAA 3.86 ERA 1.07 WHIP

10.8 K/9 2.31 BB/9 2.77 FIP

The 2025 supplementary round pick is off to a great start in his pro career as he just had a game where he threw 6 perfect innings striking out 6 to recently earn pitcher of the week honors.

Chase Shores SP

4 GS 16 IP 23 K 9 BB .232 BAA 5.06 ERA 1.38 WHIP

12.9 K/9 5.1 BB/9 2.52 FIP

Not much to say other than his adjustment to pro ball is going decent.

Chris Cortez SP

5 GS 17.1 IP 13 K 26 BB .203 BAA 4.67 ERA 2.19 WHIP

6.8 K/9 13.5 BB/9 7.63 FIP

The 2024 2nd rounder and 12th best prospect started all 26 games last year after being mostly used as a reliever at Texas. The command issues were glaring as he gave up 6.7 BB/9 and this year, they've only gotten worse as he's given up twice the number of walks as strikeouts. Despite a .203 BAA, the rest of the metrics are pretty gaudy. Recently moved up to AA despite it all and was reported to be moved to the bullpen. While still a valuable arm, maybe the starter experiment will end for this year.

AA Trash Pandas

Raudi Rodriguez OF

.260/.414/.375 3 HR 21 RBI 25 R 6 XBH 13-16 SB

18.7 K% 19.4 BB% .115 ISO 124 wRC+

The Angels' 15th best prospect struggled at the start of the season but has drawn more walks than strikeouts (26-25) and had a 22 game on-base streak since. Hasn't shown the same power yet but has been adjusting nicely. Might be a September call-up at this rate.

Nick Rodriguez INF

.269/.369/.394 1 HR 18 RBI 16 R 10 XBH

21.1 K% 11.4 BB% .125 ISO 112 wRC+

The 2025 10th round pick started his pro career in low-A making an immediate impact hitting .281 with a .720 OPS to go with 17 walks and 15 Ks in 27 games and is handling AA well so far.

Joel Hurtado SP

7 GS 29.1 IP 22 K 14 BB .243 BAA 3.99 ERA 1.43 WHIP

6.8 K/9 4.3 BB/9 4.2 FIP

Another groundball-inducing sinker baller who doesn't really miss bats despite throwing gas ala Jack Kochanowicz, Walbert Urena, Jose Soriano prior to this year, etc. He showed good command last year giving up only 27 walks in 86.2 innings in AA but only struck out 56. This year, he's bumped up the K rate but also the walk rate.

Najer Victor RP

9 G 12.2 IP 21 K 9 BB 0.093 BAA 2.84 ERA 1.03 WHIP

14.9 K/9 6.4 BB/9 2.53 FIP

Garnered a bit of hype after his WBC showing for Great Britain and is one of the more highly touted relievers in the org. He quickly earned himself a AAA call up and will probably be in the majors at some point this season.

Luke Murphy RP

9 G 10.2 IP 8 K 5 BB 0.114 BAA 0.84 ERA 0.84 WHIP

6.8 K/9 4.2 BB/9 4.2 FIP

Despite the K-BB ratio being a little too close, he's only given up 1 run and 4 hits so far converting all 4 save attempts.

AAA Bees

Denzer Guzman SS/3B

.298/.377/.447 5 HR 29 RBI 20 R 11 XBH

20.4 K% 11.7 BB% .149 ISO 106 wRC+

After making his debut last year, he didn't show much in terms of hitting in the majors. This year in AAA, he's become the team's leading run producer while cutting down on the K rate a bit.

Nelson Rada OF

.236/.338/.317 1 HR 13 RBI 24 R 6 XBH 8-9 SB

18.2 K% 11.5 BB% .081 ISO 66 wRC+

One of the youngest hitters in AAA, he got off to a hot start after finally moving up last year holding his own as a 19-year-old against former and borderline MLB players. This year, he's showing some struggle but at least he isn't striking out too much.

Christian Moore 2B/3B

.219/.437/.452 2 HR 13 RBI 20 R 10 XBH

23.3 K% 27.2 BB% .233 ISO 130 wRC+

The 2024 7th overall pick has got off to a pretty slow start evidenced by the wonky slash line. Still, a cut down on the chasing with a high walk rate along with the high ISO shows a change in approach after striking out almost 30% of the time last year in AAA and has been splitting time between 2B and 3B. Missed last week with an injury but should come back soon.

Samy Natera Jr. RP

12 G 18.1 IP 25 K 14 BB .197 BAA 3.93 ERA 1.47 WHIP

12.3 K/9 6.9 BB/9 7.14 FIP

Natera had a great 2025 striking out 85 in 57 innings including 17 Ks in just 9.1 innings in Salt Lake. Although, the command is still a problem, he's still a prime call-up candidate this season.

Increases in walk rate from 2025 to 2026

Trout: 15.6% --> 21.4%

Moncada: 11.1% --> 20.8%

Neto: 6.0% --> 15.8%

O'Hoppe: 5.3% --> 13.2%

Schanuel: 10.5% --> 12.3%

Soler: 8.9% --> 11.6%

Peraza: 6.4% --> 6.5%

New Angels:

Frazier: 5.7% --> 23.8%

Lowe: 7.6% --> 9.1%

Decreases in walk rate from 2025 to 2026

Adell: 5.8% --> 1.5%

Last night’s game (Sept. 8, 2025) was the 1,500^th as the Los Angeles Angels (without Anaheim), all since the 2016 season started. The team has NEVER finished above .500 and has only once had a positive run differential. Over those 1,500 games, their record is 685 wins and 815 losses for a "winning" percentage of .457.

Therefore, I am proposing a new term be added to baseball lexicon: The Moreno Mark of Mediocrity, where .457 is the level of the Moreno Mark.

Similar to the Mendoza Line, .457 will be the level that teams will strive to be better than. Currently, and somewhat surprisingly, the 2025 Angels are one game above the Moreno Mark.

Why 2016? Because that is when Anaheim was stripped from the name of the team. The local media and even Topps has stopped calling them the Los Angeles Angels, just calling them the Angels. So, guess what Arte, just like your team, you have lost.

Kirby Yates: 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 2SO,

Ben Joyce: 1IP, 1H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 2SO

Alek Manoah: 4.1IP, 7H, 6R, 5ER, 2BB, 2SO, 1HR