Talking With The Angels Front Office...Sort Of

I hate making phone calls.  When I was married to my first wife I used to call her and ask her to call people for me.  I'd get a long breathy sigh (and I'm sure an accompanying eye roll), but she'd usually make the call for me.  My current wife just gives me the sigh (and eye roll), so I've had to pull up my panties more often and make my own calls...sometimes (I still haven't made that doctors appointment).

Anyway, I recently sent emails to 3 people in the Angels' front office - Assistant GM Ken Forsch, Eddie Bane, Director of Scouting, and Abe Flores, Director of Player Development.  I sent the emails for a couple reasons; I wanted to see if I actually had the correct addresses, I was curious if anyone would respond, and I was interested in the answer to my question.  The question I sent was "What is it about a career minor league pitcher who have good, and sometimes great minor league seasons that doesn't translate into major league success.  I've noticed that specifically relief pitchers can have a few dominating seasons in AAA and never get an opportunity in the majors.  Is that because they are lacking a certain skill set?  Or they've never developed an "out pitch"?  Or are they just successful against the weaker minor league players and not the true prospects?  Or is it something else?" 

And guess what happened.  I received replies from each of these gentleman.  I don't know why I was surprised, the Angels are a classy organization and I've heard of other people getting responses and even phone calls from front office personnel, but I'm just some schmuck who writes (and rather poorly according to some comments) for a lowly blog that few have ever read.  Plus, I didn't send my question to three "staffers" or secretaries...excuse me, assistants.  They were sent to three people who have more important things to do - things like figuring out who's going to be the 5th starter, or analyzing other organizations for potential trade opportunities rather than responding to stupid questions.  Anyway, here's the problem my phobia ran into.  Mr. Flores' response to my email was, "Jim- Call me, Abe" and he enclosed his phone number.  Holy crap.  The Angels director of player development wants me to call him...on the phone.  Needles to say, his response to my question is not included in this article.  I apologize for being such a wimp, but the voices in my head won't let me pick up the phone.

Career Minor League Pitchers
I've written before about my fascination with minor league pitchers who seem to have major league stuff, but rarely get the opportunity to use that stuff with the big club. And if they do get a chance, what happened that they didn't stick.  How can a pitcher repeatedly put up good minor league numbers, sometimes dominating minor league numbers, and not get a chance to pitch in the majors?  In my previous posting about this subject, an acquaintance of mine who works as a major league scout gave me his opinion on the subject.  He said that some of the older pitchers who do really well at 3A take advantage of the weaker hitters in the league and lack the "out pitch" needed to succeed in the majors.  They don't have the fastball with movement, or the curveball they can throw for strikes, or good enough command of the strike zone to consistently get big league hitters out.  Ken Forsch said pretty much the same thing in his response to my email, "In the minor leagues, hitters tend to swing at more bad pitches.  Especially breaking balls in the dirt.  Good Major League hitters lay off that pitch and wait for a good count to hit in."  He also added, "Lack of major league stuff with good control at the minor league level.  Most cases a breaking ball they can get over when behind in the count.  The control plays a role at the Major League Level but if the fast ball without movement allows a hitter to sit on the breaking ball the pitcher has no chance."

Another factor in a career minor leaguer's path to the majors is opportunity at the big league level.  "One quick answer sometimes with these "career minor leaguers" is circumstances.  I believe we had a couple of pitchers on our Salt Lake club last year that could have helped some other teams.  I believe that some of the other teams should have taken a longer look at the Kasey Olenberger's etc that we had in Salt Lake.  Unfortunately for some of the guys having success in 3A and getting stuck behind a quality big league staff is poor luck.", replied Eddie Bane.  (Interestingly, Olenberger was recently released by the Angels).  Bane added, "The organization that you perform in also plays a major factor as it is really really hard to pitch in the big leagues for the Angels, Yankees or Red Sox.  That is just a fact of life.  You have to be better than a lot of really good pitchers to even get a shot in a prospect laden organization.  If you ask around with real baseball people they will acknowledge that these 3-4 systems are the ones that are really tough to advance in.  Just another "luck" or "hang with em" part of the game.  All in all you like to think that in the end it will even out and a guy stuck in Salt Lake or 3A with one of the other quality systems will get a chance, but as I said this is a tough racket and the major leagues are the best of the best and you have to be awfully good to even touch the Major Leagues."  If a pitcher is part of a very deep organization, his opportunity to move up can be blocked for several years.  After seven seasons in the minors and having not been placed on the 40-man roster, a player is eligible for minor league free agency.  After seven years, he may have already be tagged as a career minor leaguer mainly because of the organization he plays for, and not because of his pitching abilities.  This is a situation I've never thought of before, and one I can see happening.  If a pitcher is drafted out of college at the age of 21 or 22, by the time he is eligible for free agency, he's 29 years-old and too old to be thought of as a "prospect".

One other factor is timing.  Bane also has the theory that doing well at the onset of your career has an effect on if you'll be a major leaguer or minor leaguer, "The hardest level is from 3A to the Major Leagues by far.  When a player or pitcher does get the opportunity to pitch or play in the big leagues they do not have a limitless time to show their ability.  A bad month of games could relegate a pitcher back to 3A.  That is tough news, but it is really "big boy" baseball at the major league level.  At the big league level all that matters is your final numbers."  This is what I believe happened to one of the subjects of my earlier article, Jason Childers:

Signed as an amateur free agent by the Milwaukee Brewers in 1997.  Childers made his major league debut with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2006 at the age of 31 after having an impressive spring training.  The perceived problem with Childers is he doesn't throw hard, as his fastball tops out at 90 mph, and he pitches to contact relying on late movement to get outs.  However, his career minor league stats show he does a good job getting the strikeouts and has good command of the strike zone.  Childers has a .89 K/IP rate and strikes out almost 3 batters for every walk.  In 2005 at Triple-A Richmond, Childers led all Braves minor-leaguers with 16 saves and had a team-low 2.09 ERA in 38 outings and yet didn't get a chance with the big league club.  In a 2006 article from the St. Petersburg Times, Childers stated, "I think they're scared of my velocity.  If I got called up and struggled, maybe they'll feel like they'll look bad."  This was prophetic.  He struggled in his first 5 appearances that year with the Rays and was sent down at the end of April.  Never getting the chance to return.

Obviously, if Childers had been successful in those 5 appearances he would have stuck around longer.  "There are no more prospects at the big league level.  It is all and totally about results.  They can add another pitch or get better life on their fastball or better command, but the bottom line is that when given the chance to be a big leaguer they need to take advantage because their turn might not come around again.", Bane added.

Teams are always looking for the "next big thing".  A few seasons ago it was the moneyball philosophy exploiting the lack of understanding of the importance of on-base-percentage.  Currently it seems teams are focusing on the importance of team defense rather than just the pitchers' ability alone to reduce the number of runs scored.  Possibly one of the next things clubs will look into is the unexploited minor league players who are toiling at triple-A.  Players who may have the ability to succeed in the majors and who are more cost effective.  Let other teams spend $4.75M for the Justin Speiers in the league.  Pitchers whose low-leverage innings could be replaced by a player making the league minimum and pitching just as effectively (Jason Bulger, Shane Loux).  Oakland seems to have taken this approach with their organization.  Last season, after spending parts of 6 season in the minors, 28year-old Brad Ziegler was given the opportunity to show what he had.  All Ziegler did was break the major league record for innings pitched at the beginning of a career without giving up a run.

(Special thank you to the three gentleman for replying to my email.  Mr. Flores, I'll call you back once I complete treatment).