Dodgers pitcher Frankie Montas is out for two to four months after having rib surgery, Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times tweets. Montas was a key to the Dodgers’ end of the seven-player swap that sent Todd Frazier to the White Sox and prospects to the Dodgers and Reds. Now, it appears Montas will miss a portion of the season. Last year, Montas posted a 2.97 ERA, 8.7 K/9 and 3.9 BB/9 in 112 innings with Double-A Birmingham, also pitching 15 innings in his first exposure to the Majors. Here are more notes on prospects.
- It’s prospect list season, and this week Baseball America and ESPN’s Keith Law (1-50, 51-100; subscription required and recommended) published lists of the top 100 prospects in baseball. Both lists feature the Dodgers’ Corey Seager and the Twins’ Byron Buxton at the top, and there’s plenty more agreement in the top ten, with Lucas Giolito (Nationals), Julio Urias (Dodgers), J.P. Crawford (Phillies), Alex Reyes (Cardinals) and Orlando Arcia (Brewers) all figuring in both top tens. From there, though, there’s plenty of divergence — for example, BA rates Yoan Moncada of the Red Sox the third-best prospect in baseball, whereas Law ranks him at No. 17, noting that Moncada might not have the power that was expected of him when the Red Sox signed him last year. Law still projects Moncada will be an above-average everyday player, however. Law is more bullish on another top Red Sox prospect, Rafael Devers, who he says could produce 30 to 35 home runs per season while playing solid defense at third base.
- Both BA and Law (again, Insider only) also recently published rankings of the best farm systems by organization. The Braves, Dodgers, Phillies, Brewers, Rangers, Rockies, Twins, Red Sox and Pirates all fare well on both lists, and the Braves, Dodgers and Twins have seven players apiece in Law’s top 100. Both BA’s and Law’s rankings feature the same bottom five — the Tigers, Orioles, Mariners, Marlins and Angels. Law says the Angels have “by far the worst system I’ve ever seen,” noting that the Angels have no one who even came close to placing in his top 100.
The Mariners had one of the best not 3 years ago, but all of their prospects moved up into the majors
As an Angels fan I’m not really that worried about our prospects because we have a lot of good young players in the mlb. Andrew Heaney is 24 and only going to get better from his already pretty good 3.49 ERA last year, Tyler Skaggs is also 24 and I think can be a good starter for us for a long time. I don’t think he’ll be an ace but maybe a good 2 or 3 starter in his prime. Cj Cron is 26 and many our saying he will have a breakout year. Kaleb Cowart is only 23 and while his recent seasons aren’t very good, I still think he has some potential. Tyler Ward had a great season in the minors and I think he has the potential to be something. Now while I don’t love the trades we made both for Escobar and Simmons, because I do agree we just gave up way too much good prospects for both, I don’t think it puts our future in ruins.
I for one am a little sick of all this overemphasis on minor league prospects. If you look at any MLB team that makes the playoffs, you’ll find that most of them are the result of good contributions from their bench and bullpen. And most of the time that consists of veterans off the scrap heap. In fact, the Royals and Mets are both good examples. It takes a lot of luck for a team loaded with young players just making their mark to be successful. The younger a team is, the more likely they’ll sit at the bottom of the standings. Maximizing value out of role players (bench and bullpen) is the key.
It’s pretty hilarious that you cited the Mets and Royals in your argument against the emphasis on minor league systems/prospects. Last year, the Mets had 15 players on their playoff roster that came up through their minor league system. The Cardinals had 14 such players and the Royals had 11.
Ryan works in PR for the Angels, if there’s any negative report, he’ll always jump to defend. Fact is- albatross unproductive contracts + paying people to be off the team + no impact players coming from minors + unwillingness to incur the luxury tax – equals a dead team that will squander Trout’s best years. A couple of just low level prospects could have brought over Khris Davis for LF but they couldn’t even manage that. Not even the Rays would consider a Nava/Gentry platoon. Huston Street is smoke and mirrors, setup guys are very sketchy with the loss of Gott. Could go on and on. Decisions were made with best of intentions, but Artie messed up the franchise. Probably karma from putting LA in the name.
Both those teams also used their farms as currency at the the deadline. Zobrist and cueto to the royals. cespedes, uribe, johnson to the mets. Moving would be starters to the bench improves the bench more than finding the scrap heaps u mention.
The Royals built through the draft and let their young players play. The mets resisted trading their young studs. St Louis built the same way trading away those they feel aren’t game changers. That argument holds no weight. You don’t have to rely fully on young players if you are a big market team. The Angels have an interesting core in Trout, Calhoun, and now Simons. You can add Richards. They hog tied themselves with terrible contracts. Add that in to not drafting well and there is a problem. Cron is now one of the few trade chips they have unless they want to delve deeply into the pitching depth. Not only that, they have nothing to really trade from. If you’re picking from the scrap heap you better have a Pittsburgh type guru. Most people don’t over value prospects I’d argue they under value prospects facts remains a base is good but you still needs prospects to fill out the rest or be willing to spend and spend right for those needs.
Ryan is just trolling
Agree, the Angels have worst system while they have their young core talent up top. They set themselves back upon their prospectus with the free agent spending. Josh Hamilton fouled upon their plan, unfortunately, too. Free agent spending is the smart decision to farm residual; manning the positions up top, stocks for down below. The spending does takes away a top draft pick, but there’s more vacancy with no guarantee top draft picks are future major leaguers. Overstocked organizations run into the dilemma with rotting out their prospects and the options time at the same time. The winning organization strikes that delicate balance between free agent investing and talent evaluation via domestic or international scouting.
Corrections:
the Angels have the worst..
Nonetheless, free agent spending remains as a smart decision..
The spending…, but the greater vacancy below persists with a top draft pick as a future major leaguer unguaranteed. .
correction:
…and/or international scouting.
Too bad we can’t edit.
How could these ‘geniuses” in Dodger front office trade for a highly regarded young pitcher who faces surgery where there is no guarantee that surgery will be a success? These are the clowns that threw $$$$ at 54 year old Chase Utley to solidify infield.
Moncada rated 3rd best prospect while only have played at low A in the Sallie League. Yes…he had a ton of stolen bases but offensively his numbers are just a over average.
When scouting the stats goes wrong.
So the Angels have no prospects in the top 100 prospects. The last I checked Calhoun was never a top 100 prospect, and has had a pretty good start to his career. Shoemaker wasn’t even drafted and finished second in roy award. Trumbo was never a top prospect, has had a successful career so far. But hey what do I know.
Trumbo has had a good career? Are you kidding me?
Pretty simple answer, calhoun was an old prospect. Everyone thought he would be an mlbr but no real star potential. Its not a huge gap between a 2 win and 3 win player. Kole is probably at his ceiling already as well. Trumbo isnt even a full time regular at this point, it would be top 200 prospects if you wanted to include fringy players like that. Shoemaker as well. Pitchers and hitters are capable of having babip fueled seasons, long term they are still fringe starters or bench pieces.
I agree Mark Trumbo is a good player but he will never be an all star again, maybe you can count on him to .250 with 25 homeruns, Calhouns good but I think he’s 29 and is probably at his ceiling, and Shoemaker had one good year. That being said I think the Angels have 2-3 prospects right now who could be okay MLB regulars. I think Victor Alcantara could be a decent reliever, he has a great fastball but he is a little bit wild, Best case scenario he could be like Ernesto Frieri was back with the Angels, Joe Gatto could be a good starter maybe a 4th and 3rd at best. And Taylor Ward I feel could actually be pretty good, he hits for a good avg and is a great fielding catcher, but doesn’t have a lot of power and I’m sure another prospect will be a diamond in the rough if one of these guys isn’t
Baseball America wasn’t nice to the Phillies.
Appel and Alfaro not in the top 100.
Between BA, BP and MLB, the Phillies have 9 top 100 prospects to go along with Franco, Herrera, Nola, Altherr and Eickoff. The future is bright.
This makes the Featherstone move all the more strange. He would have been a very useful peace into the future. good defense good track rain the lower minors. He has some speed and is cheap and has multiple options. and they are short on prospects
I think the problem was Featherston’s bat would never be good enough to actually become a starter and they probably felt Cliff Pennigton would be good enough to field in those late innings, and who knows maybe the PTBNL the Phillies owe us will be alright
The thing is that Featherstone has decent numbers coming into last year. look at them , he has good numbers and does about everything well but maybe not spectacular. For an infielder with a good glove this is good. I think most people don’t realize that last year had to be expected. He had never played above AA and then with sporadic playing time .Given the opportunity to to play at AAA he could develop into a pretty useful player. At very least he is better than some of the pitchers they picked up that have no options left. I would rather have him than Pennington as I think there is a better chance of Featherstone hitting better . Or just take the other infielder they picked off waivers I can’t remember his name.
The Angels do have a bad minor league system but the trades for Simmons and Escobar help the halos in the future we do not a short stop or 3rd basemen for a few years now we should compete for a division because our division is weak