The Angels have signed reliever Luke Bard to a minor league deal, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register.
Bard, 28, was a Rule V selection by Los Angeles last winter; after a lukewarm April audition, in which the righty was deployed mostly in mop-up duty, Luke was shuttled back to Minnesota, with whom he spent the rest of the season in AAA.
A Trackman dandy, Bard was coveted in the Rule-5 for his super-high spin rates – his 2770 average RPM on the four-seam ranked first among MLB hurlers with at least 100 fastballs thrown last season – and newfound ability to miss bats. In five minor league seasons before 2016, the Georgia Tech-product didn’t post a K-rate north of 8.08 per nine; since, he’s hovered around twelve, though the transition from heavy sink to top-of-the-zone heat has left him susceptible to the occasional gopher ball.
The organizational favorite would figure to be in the mix at the front end of the team’s pen, where he’ll curl neatly behind a number of similar-archetype low-budget finds.
Summing up the Angels offseason : Crap Heap.
Look for the team to blow up the roster next year and move to a youth movement , maybe as early as July .
Too many ifs to contend.
Moreno will never re-build. Our bullpen has been league average or better ever since Eppler started this “cheap” bullpen , I do have faith we will be right there again which isn’t bad considering the money saved
he had a better pen in ’17 but not the other years.
Send Jo Adell to the Giants for Reyes Moronta, Will Smith, and Aramis Garcia. If you don’t think that’s fair, look at their stats.
IM looking Moronta averaged over 5 walks an inning as a reliever. It’s already the most volatile position in baseball. Will Smith Is pretty close to an elite lefty but he has one year left. And Garcia is nothing. Yeah, that’s real fair if you’re an extreme Giants homer who has no regard for the value other teams place on their players. Let’s stop the nonsense.
I agree.. thats complete bs. You never trade a future star for a bunch of “fair players with stats”
Nonsense
it’s a minor league contract for a guy with the highest rpm on his fastball. there is inherent upside there.
in other news, Harper signs with unnamed team…finally
Another in the line Twinkie “can’t miss” relief pitchers (and pitchers) that somehow missed for the Twins that may go on to success with other organizations – (or not). Also refer to: Burdi, Nick & Curtiss, John & Slegers, Aaron, & DeJong, Chase & Pressley, Ryan & Drake, Oliver, & Anderson, Nick & Busenitz, Nick & Jorge, Felix & Enns, Dietrich, & Kinley, Tyler & Jaye, Miles & Hale, David, & Chargois, JT & Rosario, Randy & Tuley, Nik & Tonkin, Michael & Gee, Dillon…
you couldnt have made your point more confusing
How is this? A little clearer?
Another in the line Twinkie “can’t miss” relief pitchers that somehow missed for the Twins that may go on to success with other organizations
Also refer to:
relief pitchers
Burdi, Nick
Busenitz, Nick
Chargois, JT
Curtiss, John
Jorge, Felix
Pressley, Ryan
Rosario, Randy
pitchers
DeJong, Chase
Kinley, Tyler
Slegers, Aaron
Turley, Nik
(And some that didn’t (or have yet to) work out anywhere)
Anderson, Nick
Drake, Oliver
Enns, Dietrich
Gee, Dillon
Hale, David
Jaye, Miles
Tonkin, Michael
Just as confusing. Try writing in complete sentences.
Enns and Turley were Yankee farmhands. Few mentioned are purely homegrown. Go spend time with your kids
This is Luke’s second time with the angels tho
If there was much to Bard, the Angels wouldn’t have sent him back to the Twins. It’s a minor league deal… Doubt he becomes the next Bert Blylevin
The Angels has a couple of days where the bullpen needed to soak some innings and no one in the pen had options left so they had to try to send Bard down and the Twins accepted him back
Summing up the Angels off season, they were a 500 Team last year, lost no one of consequence and added several one or two win players to get the win total to the high 80s without breaking up the farm or committing to long term contracts. Always amazed how clueless people are when it comes to baseball.
Everyone on the team hit the DL throughout the season with the exception of four relievers: Blake Parker, Cam Bedrosian, Jose Alvarez and Noe Ramirez
It’s amazing the amount of people that only point out their record without taking note that they broke a team record for time on the DL and sold off pieces at the deadline because of it.
Considering the volatility of relievers, might as well stockpile possibilities and hope for a hit or two.
Agree. You need a stud or two but you never know who is going to be a stud. That said, I still like investing in one stud.
Your personal life is your business.