Truck and Barter: A More Efficient Organization

June 11, 2004

A More Efficient Organization

By Bob

As previously noted, I am a fan of the Anaheim Angels and while the team has spent much of the season in first, the injuries have really mounted. In fact, much of the heart and soul of the organization has been on the disabled list: Darren Erstad, Tim Slamon, Troy Glaus, Troy Percival, Garret Anderson, Raul Mondesi, Aaron Sele and Brendan Donnely. To top it all off, I read today that a lingering injury may account for Bartolo Colon's poor season, looks like the guys may get some company. Injury plagued Angel teams aren't anything new for the Angels, the most famous incident is Moe Vaughn falling into the dugout and twisting his ankle. It is with this long and never-ending tradition that the organization has finally realized its folly and decided to chart a different course. This years draft marked the first steps in their new strategy:

Other sleepers from the Angels' draft are 14th-round pick Nick Adenhart, a right-handed pitcher from Hagerstown, Md., who would have gone very high in the first round if he didn't suffer an elbow injury last month that forced him to have season-ending Tommy John surgery.
Adenhart will probably sit out his injury at the University of North Carolina, but Bane said he would fly to Maryland next week and talk to Adenhart's family.

"We've got some idea of what we can do," Bane said. "It's a sad situation. He knows he's not going to get the money he would have gotten."

Other sleepers, according to Bane, include 30th-round pick Alan Horne, a right-handed pitcher from Chipola Junior College who played for the same high school as top Angels prospect Jeff Mathis in Marriana, Fla.

Horne was a first-round pick of the Cleveland Indians and "turned down a lot of money," as Bane put it, to pitch at the University of Mississippi. Since then, Horne has had multiple arm injuries.

"We think we might be getting him at the right time," Bane said.

Exactly, why should we draft a healthy player, have him make it through the minors up to the big leagues only to get hurt? This cuts out a lot of the hope and expectations of the organization and the fans, just draft people you can immediately place on the DL. My only question is; What? The cripple in the wheelchair was taken ahead?

So forget the minors for these guys, just sign them to major league contracts.

Posted at June 11, 2004 07:43 PM

Comments

Why not take a chance on a promising but hurt guy late in the draft. It's all a crapshoot any way. The Mike Pizza or Keith Hernandez discovered in late rounds is pretty rare. Most of the guys taken after the first few rounds are just canon founder anyway ... guys to fill up minor league rosters so the real prospects have somebody to play against.

Comment by Howard Owens at June 12, 2004 10:13 PM | Permalink

Howard, I don't disagree especially if this is a weak draft as some have said. It was the line "We think we might be getting him at the right time" that struck me as perhaps the funniest thing I've read in a long time. That's what got me to make the sarcastic post. We Angel fans are going through a rough month+ and it just seemed hilarious given the circumstances.

Comment by Bob at June 13, 2004 12:57 AM | Permalink