Bold Angels prospect predictions for 2013
1. Alex Yarbrough will be a Top 5 prospect and finish the season in AA/AAA.
Call it intuition or simply a fool’s wild guess, but the scout in me sees something in Yarbrough that I’m not sure many other publications see. His stroke is smooth, direct to the ball, no unnecessary movements. He has gap power but looks like he may have some homerun power eventually. He’s athletic and is going to hit for average. I might be going out on a limb here, but I’m really excited about this Yarbrough kid. I genuinely believe he’ll hit over .300 this year and climb the ladder fast enough to replace Howie Kendrick by the time his contract expires. I envision Yarbrough beginning the year in the Cal League but being promoted aggressively to AA or AAA around the all-star break, which is incredible given it will be his first year in the minors.
2. Chevy Clarke will have a breakout season
This is where we test the limits of he term “breakout season”. By breakout season, I mean that for the first time in his professional career, Chevy Clarke won’t disappoint fans who bought the hype following his first round selection. Clarke should spend the majority of the season in Burlington playing for the Angels A Ball affiliate. He’ll contribute across the board, accumulating 30 doubles, 15 home runs 30 stolen bases and a .250 average. Most surprisingly, Clarke will collect more than 50 base on balls for the second consecutive season. It won’t be enough to land him on any Top 100 Prospect lists, but it should be enough to make him a relevant prospect again in the organization.
no comments
Chris Iannetta’s the man. He’s earned this title, he’s played like it and no one is disputing this. However, I believe that Iannetta will inevitably need some time on the DL given his recent past and the physical demands of playing catcher for the Angels. This will open the door for Conger to earn some playing time. I believe his defense, or more specifically his throwing will progress far enough that Scioscia won’t be afraid to deploy him in Iannetta’s absence. Conger’s ability to hit from both sides of the plate for average, some power and show good plate discipline will make him an attractive and dangerous option for the Angels. This isn’t to say that Chris Iannetta is going to be bad, quite the contrary, I think he’ll be even better in 2013 than he was in 2012. But a productive Iannetta/Conger timeshare is inherently a better option than any lineup featuring 
This isn’t a “dig” on Josh Hamilton. He’s a great hitter and will continue to be for quite some time. He may have hit 43 HR for Texas last year, but when we look at his career thus far, that appears to be an outlier. In previous season where he had played in 120 games or more, he hit 25, 32 and 32 HR’s. His .359 batting average from 2010 also appears to be an outlier. His strikeouts have since skyrocketed (though to be fair his walks have progressively increased as well). So playing for Texas, the norm was more like a .300 batting average with around 30 HR’s. But Hamilton is no longer playing in Texas. The tall wall in RF and the marine layer in Anaheim knock down their fair share of potential HR’s. Hamilton should still be a productive hitter, to the tune of a .290 batting average with 40 doubles and 25+ HR’s, but gone are the MVP caliber days.
