The Angels have selected the contract of right-hander Luke Bard to the 40-man roster, per a team release. In a corresponding move, the team’s placed righty Keynan Middleton on the 60-day injured list.
Los Angeles signed the 28-year-old Bard, a former Rule 5 selection of the team ahead of the 2018 campaign, to a minors deal in mid-February.
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.
Bard still has minor league options left, so he’s no sure bet to crack the 25-man roster by March 28’s Opening Day. He’ll continue to jostle with a bevy of recycled and/or unproven arms for the last couple slots in the team’s pen, including Ty Buttrey, Hansel Robles, Noe Ramirez, Jake Jewell, and Taylor Cole.
Middleton, 25, is still recovering from a May 2018 Tommy John surgery and remains on track to return sometime in the middle of the season. The hard-throwing righty opened eyes in his 2017 big-league debut, striking out nearly 10 men per nine with solid command in 58 1/3 IP. He was shaky in 17 innings before the surgery last season, with the balky elbow perhaps in large part to blame.
Looked good his first few appearances for the Halos in 2018. Then lost it, big time.
He was overused as was the rest of the pen. He pitched well but in 1 of the outings he gave up 4 homeruns
Outside of that appearance he gave up only 1 earned run
This was Scossias biggest sin (bullpen mismangement). Lots of the preipherials were very promising.
The Angels are so much better just buy not having Scioscia. I’m so glad he’s gone.
Not his fault when the starters failed to go 5 innings for the first 2 weeks
completely agree, the starting pitching last season and much like this season starting pitching is a complete JOKE. Not 1 of these pitchers will get you imto the 7th
coveting will bite you
I try to read Angles news to my nephews to get them to fall asleep but I always nod off before them.
If it’s sleep you’re having trouble with, try holding your breath
That is good for getting rid of hiccups.
Uh.. I dont think hes trying to help him get rid of hiccups lol
Maybe it’s the fact you cant spell Angels
The Angles aren’t worth spelling correctly.
What kind of angles were they? Acute ?
Obtuse. Definitely obtuse.
one of both, they are complimentary
Yea, trig always put me to sleep too.
So Ohtani and Trout and Simmons are dull? Man you are dumb.
I select Sub-Zero.
When someone is out there counting and comparing RPMs on a fastball, baseball statistics have officially jumped the shark.
I mean, it’s only logical to keep track of RPMs in baseball. Keeping track of how the ball spins allows pitchers to perfect and or fix their pitches.
They should use RPSeconds instead, the pitch only last a second or so.
Dan Duquette?
Yea how dare they not just compare stats like batting average, Wins, or RBIs. Anything else is just propaganda to increase their salaries.
Oh shut up. I never said anything about those stats or salaries or anything else. I was commenting on the ridiculous nature of someone watching every pitch of the season and calculating an RPM rate.
How is it really going to improve any pitcher? Do you really want your pitcher on the mound thinking about his RPM rate during a game? This much info eventually just becomes white noise.
“jumped the shark” — I don’t see why — we track MPH, there’s no reason not to track the other thing that makes them hard to hit.
Pitches move (or don’t) because of how, and how much, they spin. How much they move (or don’t) is worth comparing, and spin rate is quantifiable, as is velocity.
There was a time we had no radar guns. Nobody knows how hard Walter Johnson threw, really. Films from that era are not accurate. But no one objects to using that tech, now.
I don’t understand the objection to tracking what we can track.
Luke Bard, I choose you!
had that one bad outing and was barely called upon again
if Middleton reinjures — dump him. i’m tired of Skaggs, Tropeano, Heaney reinjuring reinjuring reinjuring. if they can’t hang dump ‘em and move on.