Angels Bring up Steven Geltz: Scouting Report

Steven Geltz was undrafted out of the University of Buffalo but was signed by the LA Angels. 4 years later, he is being called up to the big leagues. Here is a short scouting report on the reliever:

The right-hander brings the ball back behind him and low before firing it over the top. His fastball doesn't look overpowering, but hitters seemed to have some problems catching up to it, perhaps because of the deception. He throws in the low to mid 90s, getting up to 95 MPH. He likes to throw it high and that is where he gets his whiffs. He also has a slider at at about 85-86 with pretty quick drop that he can use to get lefties out.

This is why the Angels brought Geltz up, he has this ability:

In AA this year, Geltz struck out 38.9% of the batters he faced, a crazy number. When he was promoted to AAA, that number dropped significantly but was still above average at 21.5%. His walks jumped from 6.2% to 8.4% (which is still slightly below PCL average). After posting a .87 FIP in AA, his FIP was a good 3.69 and SIERA a respectable 3.94 in the PCL.

I think Geltz can be a serviceable reliever for the Angels this year. Despite the deception, I don't think the delivery opens him up to being easily picked up by lefties. The fastball is good enough and the slider should keep lefties honest. He actually has reverse splits in the minors this year, so it will be interesting to see how the Angels use him.

The best catching duo in baseball

During the 09 season, the Rangers traded for Ivan Rodriquez, who was a longtime Ranger and a fan favorite. After the season ended, they decided not to resign him, and the Washington Nationals picked him up. In his two years in Washington, he has made 6 million dollars and registered a WAR (Wins above Replacement Player) of just .4. This equals a WASP (see the page about WASP above) of 15000, which is simply not good at all. After having some struggles in the '10 season, the Rangers acquired two new catchers, Mike Napoli (in one of the more lopsided trades of the year), and Yorvit Torrealba. Napoli has been fantastic, leading all catchers in BA, OBP, SLG, and HRs. His OPS is over 1.000 and he has a WAR of 5.1 (there are MVP candidates with lower WAR). His WASP is also a very good 1137. Yorvit Torrealba has also proved to be rather valuable, registering a .6 WAR (you may think that is low, but this is the backup catcher we are talking about, most teams would kill to get this kind of production for the backup catcher). He is still overpaid at a 5000 WASP, and has an OBP barely over 300, and an Isolated Slugging of just .112. However, he has caught nearly 800 innings, and hits about equal (actually slightly better against righties, despite being right-handed) against lefties and righties. Simply put, the Rangers have the best catching duo in baseball and that is a big reason they are winning the AL West.