The Angels are a pitching heavy organization. This extends from the majors all the way down to Rookie Ball. They have their starting five, and then still hold onto Nick Tropeano and Andrew Heaney in AAA purely as depth. They have Tyler Skaggs returning next season, where he’ll project into the middle of the rotation. They even have a wealth of arms in AA like Nate Smith, Tyler DeLoach and Austin Wood. That’s just on the “immediate” depth chart. Well, we can likely add two more names to that list: Sean Newcomb and Jeremy Rhoades.
Jerry Dipoto made it clear that, as an organization, the Angels have no problem being a pitching heavy team. Dipoto believes that pitching will always be needed and that he is dealing from a position of strength. Though we find ourselves in a pitching heavy era, pitching prospects are still the ultimate currency in the game. They get hurt frequently, so there’s always a need for more, they cost the major league minimum and are controllable for at least six years. The Angels BY DESIGN are chock full of them. Just look at the MWAH Top 30, sixteen (likely seventeen when Cowart makes the switch) will have been pitchers, and that was with Garrett and I putting a special emphasis on rating position players higher. We could have easily put 20-25 of the Top 30 in the pitching category. But this isn’t about those pitchers, this is about the best of those pitchers, Newcomb and Rhoades.
The Angels selected Rhoades in the 4th round of last year’s draft with the idea that they’d work him out as a starter, but inevitably he’d be a reliever, at least according to most sources. Rhoades came pre-armed with a lively low-90’s fastball, a plus-plus slider (scout talk for “amazing”), a get-me-over change up, inconsistent command and terrible mechanics. Since then, the Angels have helped him iron out his delivery, further develop his off-speed pitches and keep the ball in the strike zone.
The results have been downright fascinating: 26 innings, 31 K’s with a 2.05 ERA and a miniscule 1.7 BB/9. Remember that get-me-over change we talked about? Yeah, that thing’s dead and gone, replaced by a “plus” changeup. It may not be as good as his slider but it’s clearly a good pitch now. This performance clearly caught the Angels eye, as they promoted Jeremy Rhoades to AA, leap-frogging Advanced A Ball altogether for a spot start. Though it never happened (rain-out), it still speaks volumes about how the Angels view this kid. They can and will be aggressive in their promotions if a player is ready.
But Sean Newcomb is the pitcher everyone talks about in the Angels system. Newcomb’s matched or surpassed the majority of Rhoades’ numbers down in A Ball: 7 starts, 34 innings, 45 K’s and a 1.83 ERA. The only red flag we see if an unsightly 5.0 BB/9 innings. Right now, Newcomb’s getting away with not being as fine with his mechanics and pitches as Rhoades because Newcomb can dial it up into the mid-90’s with regularity and combine it with a good curve, good slider and a decent changeup. You just don’t tend to see that sort of arsenal in A Ball. So the logical conclusion is that Newcomb simply won’t stay in A Ball any longer, and that’s pretty spot on.
The current plan is for both Rhoades and Newcomb is to make one more appearance (or two depending on the scheduling) before being promoted to the Angels Advanced A Ball affiliate in San Bernardino. From there, the Angels will promote as they see fit, but a possible promotion to AA in July has been discussed, if both continue to compete.
For Sean Newcomb, this was a bit expected, coming from a first round pick and one of the better collegiate arms in the past couple years. But for Rhoades, who was largely expected to be a reliever, his evolution into a good starting pitcher has been very surprising. What wouldn’t be surprising is to see Rhoades and some other names pop up in trade rumors, but that sort of thing tends to happen when you’re a good pitching prospect on a team full of good pitchers. Just ask Tyler Skaggs, who the Angels dealt while he was in A Ball, only to reacquire in AAA.
You can expect to see both of these kids on the “immediate” depth chart by the end of the year.
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