Feb 24, 2015; Tempe, AZ, USA; Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher Andrew Heaney (28) throws during a work out at Tempe Diablo Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
Garrett Richards and Matt Shoemaker, two young right-handed pitchers, were the two best pitchers for the Los Angeles Angels in 2014. They posted a combined 2.81 ERA and struck out 288 batters in 46 starts, and they would’ve been even more effective if they hadn’t spent time on the disabled list.
They came at the perfect time, because coming into the 2014 season, the starting rotation was the team’s biggest question mark.
And it still is. Jered Weaver is still a highly effective and reliable pitcher, but he is 32 and won’t be as reliable in the near future. C.J. Wilson has been nothing but a disappointment. Tyler Skaggs has great potential but was unproven—and still is.
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The Angels now have two very talented young lefties in their farm system.
Andrew Heaney was traded twice in the matter of minutes back on Dec. 11. First, the Marlins sent him to the Dodgers, who then flipped him to the Angels for Howie Kendrick. Heaney was next in line to join Jose Fernandez and Henderson Alvarez in the Marlins rotation, even though he had a less than stellar big league campaign in 2014.
The Angels obviously looked past that and saw the value in a pitcher like Heaney. He has done nothing but pitch well all through the minors: his past two seasons he’s put up ERA’s of 3.28 and 1.68 (including Arizona Fall League) and WHIPs of 1.136 and 1.057. Additionally, his walk rate(2.6 to 2.4 per nine innings) and strikeout rate (8.3 to 9.4 per nine innings) went in the right directions from 2013 to 2014.
The other southpaw is Sean Newcomb. Built like a bulldozer (6’5’’, 240 lbs), Newcomb used his imposing presence and 98-mph fastball to set Hartford’s career strikeout record. In 2014, his junior season, Newcomb blew away college competition, holding helplessly over-matched offenses to a .162 AVG and 1.25 ERA. The combination of physical gifts and domination put him among MLB.com’s top 10 left-handed pitching prospects for 2015 and GotC’s number one Angels prospect.
Newcomb pitched 14.1 unconvincing innings as a pro in 2014, which is hardly enough to make any prognostication on his future major league value. A full season of putting those physical tools on display will tell us if the Angels have the left-handed counterparts to Richards and Shoemaker.
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