California Angels
79-76, 1st AL West; Lost ALCS to the Detroit Tigers, 3-0
1972 Outlook: The Angels, following a kind of bad expansion-team plan where they tried to contend immediately and then suffered through their 100+ loss season in 1964 rather than right out of the gate, had taken a step into modern Seattle Mariners (who?) land with a shot at winning 54% of their games. They still have never reached that mark, don't get me wrong, but from 1968-70 they won between 83 and 87. They slipped ever so slightly to 81 last year but, it was felt, give the kids and the pitching another year or two and 90 wins and playoff contention seemed like a possibility, maybe even a probability.
1972 In Review: The wins didn't come but the contention did anyway. Following a 26-15 start including a 19-9 May the Angels were just half a game in back of the surging Twins. Then the Twins, as I've noted in at least 2 other team reviews, fell apart. The Angels... I would not say they did not fall apart. They definitely didn't rise to the occasion with a 15-12 June and 15-14 July but they were still 56-41 at the end of that month. They were 23-35 the rest of the way. Normally we'd be talking about the second half collapse but the entire division collapsed along with them. The Angels needed to win 1 out of their last 3 games to avoid a playoff with the A's and they got it on a Ken Hansen shutout on the very last day of the regular season. The fact that they were quickly dispatched by the Tigers seemed like the most inevitable thing ever.
1973 Outlook: Will this Angels team ultimately be hurt rather than helped by the higher expectations instead of allowing their kids room to grow? Or was this the taste, as back-doory as the playoffs were, of glory that will propel them into greatness? Only time will tell. I want to say things like "if the Angels want to repeat they need to X" with X being "hit" or "find a slugger" but the AL West is wide open right now and by wide open I mean nobody in it is any good. Someone's got to grab the brass ring in this division. It might as well be these guys.
Pitching
Andy Ring
RHP No. 27
RR, 6'0" 203 lbs.
Born 1939-11-19 in Palmdale, CA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 LAD MLB 3 8 0 5.48 17 17 1 111.2 134 77 68 47 77
1970 CAL MLB 7 7 0 2.93 17 17 7 129.0 102 53 42 50 84
1971 CAL MLB 18 10 0 2.72 32 32 10 240.2 191 83 73 97 172
1972 CAL MLB 15 11 0 2.90 35 35 11 269.1 217 91 87 83 192
Ring's bad first half of 1970 when the 1967 Cy Young Award winner looked like he might be washed up is a distant memory now. Ring's 40-28, 2.85 for his new team. In the annals of bad trades, this wasn't even a "trade" per se; the Dodgers simply cut bait on him and traded him for "future considerations". He hasn't reached the All-Star Game as an Angel yet but certainly deserved the honor the last two seasons. He was even 3-1, 2.75 in September while the team around him was doing its level best to crash and burn.
Ring is totally not nicknamed "Lizard" because he's been caught in the past sneaking a lick on his slider or his change of pace, which has an awful lot of movement, before he throws them, nosiree. It's for other reasons. Ring's fastball dives in on right-handed hitters and reaches the low 90s. He's very hard to hit and 1972 marked the 8th season he's finished in the top 10 in his league in strikeouts.
After going on and on about all these guys who were going to be happy to see the DH come, Ring might be a little sad about the demise of pitchers' hitting in the junior circuit. Ring hit a career-high .235 last year and has a shot at winning his 2nd Silver Slugger. If he stays in the AL it would of course be his last. Ring needs to get off the mound well because when he doesn't strike guys out, they ground out a lot. He's good at that - getting off the mound, I mean.
Ring has a career record of 167-128. It's premature to talk about him as a Hall of Famer but hey, you know, he's 2 more good years away from 200 wins and that would still make him only 34 years of age at that point. Is 300 possible?
Ken Hansen
POS No. 28
RR, 5'12" 188 lbs.
Born 1946-04-14 in Penrose, CO
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 HAW AAA 19 6 0 2.85 27 27 21 233.0 220 91 74 62 147
1970 CAL MLB 2 0 0 2.82 6 3 2 28.2 25 9 9 9 20
1971 CAL MLB 12 11 0 3.09 37 31 9 241.1 210 93 83 86 144
1972 CAL MLB 14 16 0 2.46 33 33 15 266.2 199 81 73 86 160
Imagine playing baseball in Southern California and your AAA team is in Hawaii. Do you see why we hate you, Angels fans? OOH LOOK AT ME I CAN'T BE BOTHERED TO STAY AT THE GAME PAST THE 7TH INNING so as I was saying Ken Hansen took a nice leap at the age of 26 from thrower to pitcher. This man throws some gas - mid-90s on the gun - and came into the league thinking he could just throw that stuff past people. Even in the Big A, that didn't work super great in 1971. In '72 it all came around. The K numbers aren't high but Hansen finished 3rd in the AL in lowest opponents' average with a .207 mark. He was equal to lefties (.206) as righties (.209), which was kind of huge because teams really liked to load up on the lefties with him. His career numbers indicate that a .226 vs righties vs a .237 vs lefties so, you know, don't go crazy with this guy thinkng you're going to platoon with him.
Hansen also has really great stamina. In spite of only starting every 5th day and therefore getting 33 starts instead of the 40+ that 5 guys in the league got, he finished tied for first in the AL in complete games with 15. Only Marco Sanchez of the Red Sox, who missed a month with a strained oblique muscle in his back, had a higher complete game percentage. Hansen also finished among the leaders in losses (5th but it was bad run support), innings (8th), total batters faced (9th, again in spite of being in a 5 man rotation), WHIP (4th but a know nerd stat), and shutouts (6, 4th).
This is Hansen's time to shine. Andy Ring will be the Opening Day starter barring some kind of injury but already Hansen is making a case in Angels fans' hearts, their cold, cold hearts.
Gary Bruno
RHP No. 35
RR, 5'8" 173 lbs.
Born 1945-09-04 in San Diego, CA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 CAL MLB 16 8 0 2.80 33 31 9 237.1 221 88 74 60 103
1971 CAL MLB 14 14 0 3.27 38 38 11 277.2 284 111 101 75 111
1972 CAL MLB 11 14 0 2.99 32 32 8 240.2 228 103 80 59 109
The Angels' 3rd starter Gary Bruno was their #1 guy back in 1970. He hasn't really regressed so much as he just fell behind the former Dodger and the young flamethrowing prospect. Bruno is also much more of a finesse pitcher than the first two guys in the rotation. His 4.1 K/9 rate was actually a career high for the stocky San Diegan. Mostly, though, he excels in making guys put the ball on the ground. He finished 8th in the AL in groundball percentage.
Because he's a finesse guy who has to nibble at the corners, Bruno sometimes misses out over the plate and the results are pretty much what you'd expect. That said, thanks to playing in breezy Anaheim Stadium, Bruno's HR rates are still fairly average. He's allowed 21 HRs apiece in each of the last 2 seasons. Keeping the ball down was, strangely, harder for Bruno this year at home compared to on the road: 12 of his 21 HRs allowed happened in Anaheim and that plus the complete lack of support he had on his home turf (2.2 RS/G) led to a 4-10 record when he got to use his own shower.
Bruno would surely like to get things right at home. If he just pitched 2 road halves he'd have finished 14-8, 3.01, albeit with only 4 complete games. The Angels won't want to have to use him in Game 1 of the ALCS again, should they get that far, but knowing that he's available to be that 3rd-best pitcher on the staff is enough.
Al Gore
RHP No. 6
RR, 6'3" 186 lbs.
Born 1948-11-28 in Washington, DC
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 PHO AAA 11 10 0 4.37 29 29 14 209.2 218 110 102 74 127
1971 SLC AAA 8 12 0 3.46 24 24 12 194.2 189 86 75 58 110
1971 CAL MLB 5 3 0 3.47 8 8 1 54.1 55 22 21 14 35
1972 CAL MLB 11 10 0 3.23 28 25 6 183.2 155 72 66 67 119
It's a real "inconvenient truth" for Bruno that the Angels discovered Al Gore; in his first full season in the major leagues, he showed the stuff that could supplant Gary as the #3 man and therefore a playoff starter in the rotation. The "Tennesee" native (his dad's a politician so like George W. Bush he's a Beltway insider) came up with San Francisco, was moved to the Padres, and then shuffled around to California with the, um, change of minor league teams (look, these things happen). He was at one point the 4th highest prospect in the league heading into 1971. Sometimes I don't understand how OOTP grades this stuff out: his minor league record looks fine, don't get me wrong, but it looks like the record of a high-stamina guy. I guess the game sees that velocity and thinks he'll turn into a power pitcher?
Gore throws hard but straight and the quality of his pitches aren't super great, although he does throw a lot of them. He's shown pinpoint control in the minor leagues in the past but didn't quite have that last year. Still, as a 23 year old he showed he belonged in the big leagues, and that alone is saying a lot. He did finish 8th in the league in wild pitches with 10; he'll need to concentrate a bit more in the future.
Gore got into 2 games and 2.2 IP in the ALCS and didn't allow a run. I wouldn't say he's ready for prime time yet but he's definitely ready to resume that back of the rotation position. If that heater (well, he cuts it but it still gets into the low to mid 90s) can find just a little bit more movement, look out, American League.
Tanzan Kihara
RHP No. 24
SR, 6'2" 199 lbs.
Born 1940-09-20 in Tokyo, JPN
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 CAL MLB 1 2 2 2.38 53 0 0 68.0 57 20 18 12 64
1971 CAL MLB 2 7 10 3.49 54 0 0 77.1 78 33 30 18 71
1972 CAL MLB 8 8 18 3.69 54 0 0 70.2 62 30 29 28 57
Normally, when you prick a team that overachieved its projected record, a dominant bullpen bleeds. But nope - the Angels' pen was led by the very, very up-and-down Kihara for the second straight year and with the second straight kind of results. Kihara in fact was pretty good through June, positing a 4-2 record, 7 saves, and a 1.20 ERA through July 2. Then... the wheels came off, culminating in a 7.94 ERA and 3 blown saves in 6 chances in September.
Kihara throws hard, just like you want a closer to do. His Ks were down but still really high, relatively speaking. The issue for him has been that he loves to challenge hitters maybe just a bit too much. Kihara has allowed 27 HRs in 148 innings over the last 2 seasons. This past year that rate was slightly down although still too high (he gave up 10) but the pinpoint control he'd displayed from 1969 to 1971 left and the result was his highest ERA since 1967.
Kihara's now 32 and the only thing keeping him in this job, it would seem, is the lack of someone to take his place in the organization.
Luis Flores
RHP No. 41
RR, 5'6" 172 lbs.
Born 1943-12-23 in La Crosse, WI
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 BOS MLB 2 2 1 3.63 22 1 1 34.2 30 21 14 19 24
1971 SLC AAA 2 0 0 2.65 3 3 0 20.1 21 6 6 5 12
1971 CAL MLB 6 6 3 3.85 34 10 0 91.0 95 44 39 33 55
1972 CAL MLB 2 4 9 4.11 43 0 0 54.2 61 33 25 31 36
Flores is... frustrating to say the least. The one-time AL leader in ERA (1967, when he went 12-6, 1.83 as a rookie) has a wide but shallow repertoire of pitches, which would lead you to think he'd be a good fit as a starter, but he tends to crap out before he hits 100 pitches. The Angels have used him as a swingman and then pretty much entirely in relief last year and can't be too happy with the results. Like Kihara, too, he struggled late, although his truly awful month was a 1-2, 6.35 July where blowing 2 saves in 5 chances put the kobosh on an attempt to hand over the closer reins to the 28 year old.
His success in Boston, when he had it, was mostly tied to his ability to keep the ball down in the zone and gete people out with a nice change-of-pace off of a high 80s fastball. Last year saw him allow 7 HRs in 54.2 IP; not good for anyone, especially someone who gets to play half their games in Anaheim.
Flores probably won't find himself out a job in the big leagues any time soon - even if the Angels tire of him, someone will surely try to see if they can recapture the magic he had in '67 - but he might be done with the Angels.
David Camacho
LHP No. 22
RL, 6'7" 201 lbs.
Born 1941-07-25 in Tejupilco, MEX
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 NYM MLB 7 12 0 3.77 33 24 6 181.1 173 84 76 45 108
1971 NYM MLB 12 10 0 3.81 34 31 4 217.0 222 104 92 58 141
1972 CAL MLB 10 7 0 3.40 23 23 5 164.0 147 63 62 45 95
Camacho was the primary piece coming back in the trade the Angels made with the Mets last year for SS Chris Adams. While it was (arguably) a good idea to send the 7 year Angels' veteran out, the returns they got were not what one could call amazing. Camacho most of the final 2 months of the season with shoulder tendinitis which may have been affecting him before, as the 31 year old had the lowest K rate since his rookie year in 1963. He still had his good control but in 1972 in this part a 3.40 ERA is not actually very good.
There are thoughts of moving him into the bullpen: if he doesn't have to worry about trying to mix in his only-average change of pace and throws nothing but his low-90s fastball he throws with a couple of different grips, he could get back to whiffing a lot of batters again. The Giants used him as a swingman in 1968 and he wasn't very effective (8-10, a 3.70 ERA, 6 Sv) but now, 5 years on, maybe he's learned how to pitch well enough to be "that guy". Also, he'd be the only lefty in a bullpen that sorely needed one last year.
Right now it would seem that the biggest thing keeping Camacho out of a lefty out artist / short reliever role is the lack of quality starting pitching behind Al Gore. That's still 4 starters though, technically all they need.
Infield
Shaun Dennehy
C No. 18
RR, 5'10" 200 lbs.
Born 1943-12-09 in Cleveland, OH
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 RIC AAA .260 21 73 8 19 4 0 1 6 5 20 0
1970 ATL MLB .243 80 292 26 71 7 0 4 28 34 66 0
1970 CAL MLB .247 23 77 6 19 3 0 0 11 8 17 0
1971 CAL MLB .248 126 408 45 101 12 2 7 39 63 78 0
1972 CAL MLB .196 121 321 32 63 9 1 2 28 52 66 0
In 2 years as the Angels' starting catcher, Dennehy has been pretty much what the doctor ordered: a no-frills guy who can play good defense and... well, okay, I was going to say "not hurt you with the bat" but he descended into "hurt you" territory last year. He seems to be pretty content with life as a defense-first catcher, even if that means eventually become a defense-first backup. When he does show up early to practice, which isn't terribly often, it's usually to work with pitchers on a nifty new pickoff move he thought up or a new way of signalling pitches.
Dennehy's slow the way catchers are. There are worse guys in the league when it comes to striking out but it's definitely true that when all you can produce is 2 HRs, you need to K less than he did. He once hit 12 HRs in the minors and overall 2 looks to be very, very low even for him, but I'd be surprised if he hit even 10 HRs in a single season. He's not a terrible bunter and has laid down 7 sacrifices in his last 2 years. He is scouted as having a plus arm but the Angels like to tell their pitchers to ignore the running game and so he only threw out 30.3% of baserunners, a decidedly middle-of-the-pack 4th for qualifiers, although thanks to the backups the Angels as a team were 3rd in RTO% with 34.4%
Tsui Hark
C No. 46
RR, 6'1" 199 lbs.
Born 1950-02-14 in Ho Chi Minh City, VIE (um that is not the preferred nomenclature we still call it Saigon)
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 BND S A .287 52 164 28 47 8 0 4 27 50 33 2
1970 QC A .270 21 63 10 17 4 0 2 15 12 14 0
1971 QC A .298 34 114 22 34 7 0 2 15 24 22 0
1971 SHR AA .289 54 194 22 56 10 0 4 14 25 33 1
1971 SLC AAA .313 5 16 2 5 1 0 0 1 4 2 0
1972 SLC AAA .274 79 237 40 65 11 3 7 30 41 32 0
1972 CAL MLB .327 34 49 9 16 2 0 2 8 16 4 0
I normally have a 100 PA cutoff for including guys but Hark is the exception since he finished the season and probably goes into 1973 as the backup catcher. Hark, originally signed out of Hong Kong in 1968, has shown up in top prospect lists for years, although recently his prospect star has dimmed as it's been revealed more and more than he's not a good defensive catcher. His offensive skills are more or less in place, even at age 22. Maybe he won't hit .327 in his career but .290 is doable. If the Angels can get his bat in the lineup every day he'll also give you 15 HRs or so and a clutch ability that precludes his hitting 8th. He was even used 11 times in the majors as a pinch-hitter.
Somehow he threw out 54% of baserunners last year, I guess because teams had heard so much about his popgun arm and wanted to test it. It was a far more pedestrian/mediocre 27.5% in the minors last year. As a baseball player, his mind is clearly occupied with other things. Cinematography, for instance.
Usually when you have a good offensive guy who's an iffy defender and a good-glove/arm/poor hitter, it's the offensive guy who winds up starting much of the time. With Shaun Denney's bad 1972, Hark will definitely be in that mix.
Willie Vargas
1B No. 7
RR, 6'2" 200 lbs.
Born 1944-09-12 in Santiago, DOM
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CHW MLB .323 132 520 75 168 32 3 7 58 56 31 23
1971 CAL MLB .281 135 552 67 155 30 5 5 46 36 50 32
1972 CAL MLB .277 145 559 58 155 21 8 9 61 46 59 29
Vargas finished in the top 5 in average in '69 and '70 with the White Sox but hasn't gotten close to that .320-.350 range since. Nevertheless, he was still the team's top hitter, leading the Angels in runs, RBIs, and doubles and losing out only to Carlos Hernandez in hits and average. He has good speed to first and on the bases and that plus his ability to make consistent contact leads scouts to believe that the last 2 years have been outliers in terms of average. He hit .226 in April and basically spent the rest of the season trying to make up for that. His best month was September: with the rest of the team doing its best... let's face it, 1995 Angels (when?) job, Vargas hit 307/390/525 and could have won a Player of the Month award had a certain Cleveland first baseman not been even hotter.
Although he's only 28, Vargas has already moved down the defensive spectrum to first base and a further move to DH might happen soon. He works hard at what he does, especially in the batting cage, but he has poor instincts and an inaccurate arm in both the infield and outfield. Normally a guy like this - Vargas led the league in steals in 1969 with 38 and has stolen at least 23 in every year he's been in the big leagues - can make up for that but as a left fielder Vargas took such crazy angles that his teammates began to call him Mounds (because sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't I guess?).
Nobody wants to return to the land of the .300 average more than Vargas does, and if he can then boom, right there the Angels have a big old shot in the arm. He would truly become their Almond Joy.
Mauricio Mendez
2B No. 14
RR, 6'0" 187 lbs.
Born 1946-09-01 in Barcelona, VEN
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CAL MLB .291 99 371 60 108 14 6 12 48 31 54 18
1971 CAL MLB .273 113 400 53 109 10 3 10 44 30 54 21
1972 CAL MLB .227 112 410 47 93 12 3 8 29 42 47 22
Every year - 4 years running now - it seems like Mendez loses his grip on the 2nd base job and then wins it back over the course of the season. Usually it's because of the team getting tired of his iffy range at second base. This past year his actual hitting came under fire - after a .150 April he got things mostly on track until he had another bad month in July, and with him down to .255 at the All-Star Break the Angels gave 21 year old prospect Kurt "Snake Plissken" Russell a chance. He wasn't ready and so, with the playoffs on the line, Mendez got the job back... and hit .170 in September and 2-13 in October, lowering his overall average to what you see above.
Mendez' bat should certainly rebound but the loss of bat speed over the years is a real issue. His first year with Cal he hit .322 and his average has gotten lower and lower every year since that point. With plus contact and power, scouts think he could be one of the best 2B in the league overall as he enters his prime years, but the glove's going to hold him back.
It wouldn't be outrageous to see the still-only-26 Mendez shopped during the offseason if the Angels can get enough back for him.
Kurt Russell
2B/SS No. 20
SR, 5'11" 177 lbs.
Born 1951-03-17 in Springfield, MA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1971 QC A .269 6 26 2 7 0 0 0 1 2 5 1
1971 SHR AA .299 23 87 11 26 3 0 0 6 11 16 5
1971 SLC AAA .358 13 53 3 19 3 0 0 5 6 6 0
1972 SLC AAA .249 107 414 52 103 13 2 3 36 44 72 10
1972 CAL MLB .234 36 128 10 30 8 0 0 5 12 22 3
Fun fact: Kurt Russell actually played minor league baseball; his dad, Bing Russell, owned the Angels' minor league affiliate in Bend, Oregon and he was even not too bad with them, which is a little crazy considering he was like, I don't know, the Jeannette McCurdy of his day: a child actor who only didn't have a long-running sitcom because back in those days the kids made recurring silly movies like "The Horse In The Gray Flannel Suit" and "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes". IRL he tore his rotator cuff at a collision at second base; this alternative reality ponders, what if he hadn't (and also what if James Hong, his nemesis in "Big Trouble In Little China", was his on-field nemesis)?
This version of Russell is a great defensive second baseman, so good that some kind of meh hitting ability still propelled him into being the #32 ranked prospect in all of baseball at the end-of-season 1971 rankings. His hitting looked unrefined and incomplete but the scouts insist he'll eventually hit well enough to hold down a major league job for a number of years.
The question really becomes then, if eventually then why not immediately? And if immediately, what do you do with Mauricio Mendez?
Travis Corley
3B No. 2
RR, 5'11" 190 lbs.
Born 1944-10-26 in Bloomfield Township, MI
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 HAW AAA .282 127 468 62 132 17 3 9 51 47 63 12
1970 CAL MLB .314 15 51 7 16 4 0 1 6 6 6 0
1971 CAL MLB .268 144 514 78 138 16 4 16 76 63 86 7
1972 CAL MLB .201 109 368 36 74 6 0 3 32 42 73 3
Corley's fall from grace was less publicized than that of the A's Chase Young only because he didn't have as far to fall; nevertheless, Corley followed Young's path of 1971 All-Star to 1972 no-star. Like, he did nothing last year - that .201 average came with a pitchery .242 slugging and just 9 base-hits in 410 plate appearances. I guess he did an OK job with drawing walks, at least until pitchers realized he was no threat to hit anything hard. Like Mendez he lost his job late in the summer and like Mendez he got it back in September when the replacements didn't hit either. He hit .242 in the final month but with just 1 double; even the improved Corley was not up to the task.
Corley is a solid if not spectacular third baseman. He'd got average speed, although it's a shadow of what he once had in the minors when he stole 21 bases for AA El Paso in 1969. He doesn't make dumb decisions on the bases and makes the most of what speed he's got left at 27.
The best thing that Corley has going for him is that his replacement, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, was completely not up to the task last season (see below). Scouts think the power will return. I am... skeptical.
Jean-Pierre Raffarin
3B/SS No. 36
LR, 5'10" 172 lbs.
Born 1948-08-02 in Poitiers, FRA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 GRW A .264 14 53 7 14 3 1 0 8 6 12 4
1970 SHR AA .300 63 243 34 73 9 4 4 36 15 42 1
1971 QC A .212 24 85 7 18 4 1 4 18 6 19 0
1971 SHR AA .236 52 199 24 47 7 0 9 21 27 33 1
1971 SLC AAA .260 53 181 20 47 10 1 3 19 20 32 0
1972 SLC AAA .244 95 295 34 72 12 0 9 46 29 51 1
1972 CAL MLB .169 41 136 9 23 6 1 1 5 7 23 0
You might look at the name and think "oh no, what are the Angels doing starting known Canadians in their infield?", but no, dear reader, the reality is far worse than that. Raffarin is a Frenchman, and not one of those almost-Frenchman like the Belgian Phillippe Toussaint but an actual Frenchman from Poitiers. No, Poitiers isn't the home city of movie star Sidney Poitier - and in spite of what the name implies, no, there are not multiple Sidney Poitiers there - but an actual city in actual croissaint-eating, stripey-shirt wearing, unicycle riding France.
Raffarin wasn't super great in AAA and as a 1st round pick in 1970 (don't think about this too much, OK?) he really needed some more development time in the minors. With Travis Corley hitting like a pitcher, they called him up anyway, and... wait, did I say Travis Corley hit like a pitcher? At least Corley hit like a good hitting pitcher. Raffarin hit like a French pitcher. The only offense he created was his stinky garlic breath.
Even with Raffarin's high pedigree, it's looking increasingly like his future in the majors is going to be in a utility role; he can play both second and short, although not to a plus level. A .240s average with 15-18 HR pop like he showed in AAA might be enough to supplant Corley, at least in the short term.
Richard Simmons
SS No. 5
LR, 5'12" 188 lbs.
Born 1948-01-25 in New Orleans, LA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 LOD A .281 25 89 16 25 7 0 1 5 10 16 10
1970 SLC AAA .210 29 100 9 21 1 1 2 10 9 13 5
1971 SLC AAA .306 86 327 36 100 14 5 5 45 47 45 5
1971 CAL MLB .261 52 199 30 52 11 2 4 21 26 32 3
1972 CAL MLB .234 136 441 47 103 15 5 10 44 58 77 10
Richard Simmons, future gay icon to 1980s American housewives, had first full year that I can actually say "hey, for the season and for the position, that's pretty darn good" without lying to myself. The double-digit power is legit and so is hit ability to wait out an at-bat for a pitch he likes and take a walk if he never gets it. You wish he wouldn't try to pull every damn thing but I guess turning on the high fastball works for him and it's not like he's a threat to beat out a lot of hits with his speed anyway.
The speed is fine, don't get me wrong, just not speedster levels. Simmons is smart on the bases and stole 10 of 13 last year. Those who see his 38/43 rate in college should not be reading too much into college numbers and just accept him for who he is. Simmons is a former fat kid who has turned into an absolute fitness NUT and who loves to get everyone, players, management, the wives of managment, to do aerobic exercises with him.
Simmons would be an ideal #2 hitter if he could get his strikeout rate under control. As he is now, he made the All-Star game last year and made it legitimately.
Ivan Perez
SS/2B No. 45
RR, 5'11" 188 lbs.
Born 1944-06-02 in San Cristóbal, DOM
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 HAW AAA .203 46 153 24 31 4 1 6 18 20 44 0
1970 CAL MLB .167 6 6 0 1 1 0 0 2 1 2 0
1971 CAL MLB .238 23 63 11 15 1 0 3 9 7 14 0
1972 CAL MLB .186 51 102 11 19 5 1 3 14 11 27 1
Perez has the reputation, perhaps not altogether well-earned, as an iffy defensive shortstop who can hit pretty well, and so for the first half of the seaosn he got a decent amount of playing time as a platoon-mate with Richard Simmons. He hit just .160 on the year against left-handed pitchers and got just 4 starts and 11 games from August 1 onward as it became clear that no, he's not much of a hitter after all.
Perez hit .269 with 12 HRs in Hawaii in 1969. That was 4 years ago now and it seems unlikely that at age 28 someone is going to want to see if he can do that in a full season, especially now that he looks like someone who can handle second base at best - he posted a 0.2 ZR in 143.1 innings at short. He seems willing to continue on in the backup middle infield role if that's all that's there for him.
Outfield
Lou Morgenstern
LF/RF No. 39
RR, 5'11" 200 lbs.
Born 1939-10-14 in Sydney, AUS
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 MIN MLB .239 129 510 77 122 24 11 19 72 77 113 2
1971 MIN MLB .247 149 559 73 138 24 12 19 69 74 100 3
1972 CAL MLB .228 140 504 57 115 18 7 11 60 68 96 8
The Angels traded for Morgenstern, giving up closer Travis Livingston in the bargain, with the idea that they could insert the 1963 AL Rookie of the Year and 4-time All-Star into the lineup every day at the cleanup spot and get 20-ish HRs worth of production. They did not count on him failing to hit for power at home, pressing badly in April (5-33), and then struggling to get his average up for the rest of the year. I guess to be fair TOOOO BEEEEEE FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIA he got it all the way up to .247 as of September 8 but a .165 September dropped it into replacement range.
Morgenstern puts up all the numbers you'd expect from a middle-of-the-order slugger - a low average, lots of walks and strikeouts - except for the actual homeruns. He still finished 2nd on the team in RBIs although 60 is really bad for a cleanup hitter. He's a man who will do all the work of looking for the right pitch to hit and then fall in love with high fastballs, all too often either swinging straight through them or lifting them into left field for easy outs.
Morgenstern came up as a centerfielder and, while he was unbelievably awful out there at that position, had been a defensive plus for the Twins ever since they moved him into right and then left starting in 1969. That trend continued his first year in California. At 33, he still has much of the natural speed that he came up with and what he's lost in that regard, he's made up for by knowing where to stand for a given hitter. He will steal on a napping pitcher and is a big man who likes to break up the double play.
Morgenstern will get another shot out there in 1973 because the Angels don't have a lot of options in left field.
Jared Ferrell
LF/RF No. 9
LL, 6'2" 200 lbs.
Born 1946-05-18 in Rathdrum, ID
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 ELM AA .305 60 203 53 62 6 1 15 38 55 33 2
1970 OMA AAA .271 77 258 40 70 11 2 10 35 39 83 0
1971 DAN A .000 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0
1971 EVA AAA .315 33 111 18 35 5 0 7 18 18 18 0
1971 MIL MLB .287 104 279 46 80 16 2 19 49 40 47 1
1972 MIL MLB .202 30 114 11 23 6 0 3 10 13 19 0
1972 CAL MLB .260 70 181 15 47 7 0 5 24 18 36 0
Ferrell got off to a rough start for Milwaukee last year, which led the Brewers to give him up to the Angels in exchange for Jordan Irons, a former member of the Angels' rotation who was a victim of numbers in California. Once Ferrell came over, he got his average back up, played a lot in both outfield corners against only right-handed pitching, and even pinch-hit 26 times. What didn't return was that prodigious power that he showed last year. I guess if he had, he wouldn't have been available for so cheap.
For a power guy, Ferrell can go the other way with a pitch and hit the outside fastball into left field. The 19 HR rookie year has made him prone to swing at anything high and lefties can get him out by throwing him practically anything off-speed. He won't kill you in the outfield although his relative lack of athleticism shows both there and on the bases.
As a fourth outfielder and platoony guy there and at DH, Ferrell's got a spot on an Angels team that is kind of desperate for power.
Sam Marks
PH/OF No. 4
LR, 5'11" 202 lbs.
Born 1942-10-30 in Lester Prairie, MN
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CHC MLB .340 93 197 24 67 11 1 3 25 13 14 1
1971 BOS MLB .325 100 243 33 79 19 0 4 33 20 22 0
1972 BOS MLB .277 59 83 7 23 6 0 1 5 10 12 1
1972 CAL MLB .192 30 52 3 10 3 0 0 3 3 9 1
The Angels decided they needed Sam Marks and the Red Sox decided they did not, so the Halos were able to pick him up for pretty cheap, costing only minor league OF Andy Dulin in return. Marks then stopped doing the thing they brought him over for, culminating in a .156 September, right when the Angels needed him the most.
Marks was ued a bit as a fill-in OF with California; he's actually not a bad fielder and could continue in that type of role. All of that, of course, depends on the hitting. Marks has never been a big power guy and is more of a put the ball in play guy. With Cal, he seemed to press and struck out half as many times in September (6) as he had with the Red Sox the whole year. That's got to stop and to be fair TOOOO BEEEE FAAAAAIIIR the scouts think he's got that in him still.
Marks can ride a variety of different roles with this club, depending on how much he impresses in spring training as well as how close some of the younger players are. Last year a couple guys who probably should have gotten more seasoning in the minors got significant at-bats in the corners.
Carlos Hernandez
CF/RF No. 11
RR, 5'10" 195 lbs.
Born 1942-03-18 in Havana, CUB
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CLE MLB .296 150 669 88 198 31 8 13 57 41 42 4
1971 CLE MLB .279 51 179 16 50 6 0 3 15 8 23 2
1972 CAL MLB .281 137 565 53 159 16 7 9 61 30 53 8
While he was in Cleveland, Hernandez was accused by Ernesto Garcia of pulling a gun on him. This shocked kind of everyone, including Hernandez himself, who was one of the few players on the team who got along with the mercurial slugger. The Indians had little choice but to side with the HR champ and so Hernandez was suspended from the team for the rest of 1971 and then shipped off to California in a trade that sent 2/3rds of California's starting OF - Norm Hodge and Nelson Vargas - to the Forest City (which I'm pretty sure is NOT what Cleveland was called by the 70s but STILL). Hernandez came over to California and looked pretty much exactly who he was with his former team - a little less power in a much bigger stadium, maybe, but otherwise pretty much the same guy.
Hernandez is kind of a night and day difference from Norm Hodge - not only does he not have Hodge's range, he committed 7 errors out there as well. His future is clearly in the outfield corners as he's not the kind of guy to work through issues like this via practice. He's got a good enough arm that he could play a good right field for several years. He's got plus speed but doesn't have great instinct on the bases; those 8 steals he got came in 16 attempts and the Halos would do well to nail his foot to the bag in the future.
At least for 1973, Hernandez will get put into the lineup in centerfield in ink pen. Beyond that, as long as he keeps hitting he's surely got a spot on this team somewhere.
Jaco Pastorius
OF/2B No. 15
LR, 6'0" 190 lbs.
Born 1948-09-29 in San Jose, CA
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1971 QC A .000 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
1971 SHR AA .359 11 39 8 14 3 3 1 6 6 5 3
1971 SLC AAA .289 55 204 23 59 13 3 4 20 20 42 3
1971 CAL MLB .321 29 78 6 25 7 0 0 13 6 18 4
1972 CAL MLB .199 86 221 31 44 14 1 2 19 22 50 6
Pastorius was the #15 overall pick in the draft in 1971 and has been rushed baaaadly. He'll be the GOAT of bass players (if you don't know the guy, look him up - he made a solo album that's insane in a "how do you do that with that instrument" way) but he won't be the GOAT of players if the Angels keep using him like this. He did, I guess to be fair, have a good half-season up in AAA before the Angels gave him a debut-year cup of coffee, then convinced themselves that he was going to be their guy out of spring training. He did spend the entire year with the big league club, which I'm not sure was a good or a bad thing.
The scouts project Pastorius to have good contact skills but in his rookie year he showed anything but. He'd have easily eclipsed 100 Ks if the Angels had kept him in the lineup and not pretty well given up on him from the All-Star Break forward (he had just 6 starts after August 1). He needs that contact because one thing Pastorius does not have, not even in college, is power. He's got plus speed but it's not blinding: if he can figure out the hitting, he should be able to man center just fine even if long-time fans of the Angels might look at him and decide that he'll never be Norm Hodge.
Really, all signs point to the 24 year old Pastorius getting sent down to the minors to start 1973. You never know, though: if he hits, or even if other guys fall apart, he could be back up very quickly.
Chris Tyree
RF No. 16
RL, 5'12" 197 lbs.
Born 1943-11-04 in Ozark, AL
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CAL MLB .326 75 288 34 94 12 7 4 38 12 31 10
1971 CAL MLB .326 98 396 39 129 19 5 2 45 10 29 13
1972 CAL MLB .289 57 228 25 66 11 2 2 26 10 23 10
1972 was rough for Tyree. He struggled out of the gate with a .220 average in April, then looked like he put everything together with a .385 May, only to miss 4 weeks with a strained rotator cuff. He came back in July and was initially struggling but he'd had 5 hits in his previous 3 games when a torn meniscus in his knee ended his season on the 19th. Well.. his regular season, anyway: Tyree came back to start all 3 games of the ALCS and went 4-13.
Tyree is a pure singles hitter but he's one of the best contact guys in the game when he's healthy. The health is a big issue though, as Tyree has missed time in each of his 4+ seasons in California. Defensively he covers a lot of range but only has a fair arm; left is probably better suited for him than right, although OOTP's ask for range in right means he's probably the guy you want to put out there anyway - that is, if you're not trying to save his knees at DH. Tyree could still, even with the injuries, steal 20 bases a year if he ever got to play a whole year.
I'm beginning to talk myself into using Tyree as the DH... the issue I've got is, I think a lot of his ability comes with the fact that he's a good defensive corner outfielder. If he hits .326 again then he'd still be a fantastic fit for DH; that's a lot to ask for.
Minzengo Pinda
RF No. 29
SR, 5'11" 187 lbs.
Born 1949-08-10 in Mpanda, TAN
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 BND S A .453 20 75 16 34 3 1 1 17 9 10 17
1970 QC A .277 45 177 26 49 6 3 6 25 26 33 14
1971 SHR AA .283 37 138 15 39 6 1 3 20 9 28 9
1971 SLC AAA .204 72 250 16 51 8 3 1 20 33 39 3
1972 SHR AA .363 25 80 16 29 1 1 2 10 19 5 3
1972 SLC AAA .265 10 34 5 9 0 2 1 5 6 4 3
1972 CAL MLB .222 73 185 10 41 4 1 1 11 15 35 3
Pinda's another guy who you'd maybe like to see get a full year in AAA, in his case just to figure out exactly who he is as a ballplayer. The scouting discovery out of Tanzania has been playing in the organization since 1968 but has never had more than 257 at-bats at any one level as the Angels keep promoting him mid-season. The scouts think he's another contact guy in the image of a Chris Tyree. That sure didn't translate to the majors last year. Neither did the plus speed; Pinda simply didn't get on base often enough to steal. He had 33 appearances as a pinch-hitter, which is not a great role for a kid and seemed like a particularly bad role for Pinda: he hit just .167 (5-30; he also had 3 walks). Similar to Pastorius here, the Angels stopped using him down the stretch, as he had all of 11 games and 4 starts from September 1 onwards.
The tool that will get Pinda into the majors to stay is his off-the-charts arm. Already in the major leagues, runners just straight up refused to go on it. He's the kind of guy who might one day lead the country he hails from and this shows in the way he's a leader of men in the clubhouse, too.
Pinda did basically nothing at the plate. A contending team cannot put out an outfielder who hits like a shortstop, no matter how great their arm is.