About two months in the past, the Los Angeles Angels have been making an attempt as onerous as they might to cling onto the again of the AL Wild Card chase. If they might do this, they might keep the faint hope of convincing Shohei Ohtani, their once-in-six-lifetimes famous person free-agent-to-be, that Orange County was a spot the place he might win for the remainder of his profession.
They threw all the things on the wall — traded the highest tier of their farm system for short-term pitching assist, revamped their outfield, and spent a lottery choose on a university first baseman, seemingly with the specific objective of speeding him to the majors in time to assist with the playoff push. How’d all that go? Terrible, as you may anticipate. Mike Trout acquired harm, Taylor Ward acquired harm, then Trout acquired harm once more. Lucas Giolito allowed 28 runs in 32 2/3 innings in his six begins with the Angels.
This week, the Halos made the unprecedented and controversial choice to place their leases on waivers, in a last-ditch try to get again underneath the posh tax threshold to allow them to obtain a better draft choose as compensation for Ohtani leaving. All that sounds completely horrendous, doesn’t it?
However the information isn’t all unhealthy, as a result of that faculty first baseman, Nolan Schanuel, has been fairly good in his first style of massive league motion. Even higher: He’s been attention-grabbing. Let’s have a look.
Once I spoke to Schanuel earlier this week, he mentioned that when the draft was approaching, he didn’t know the place he was going to go, however he knew that the Angels had a repute for shifting their hitting prospects via the minors rapidly. That made them a match for the then-Florida Atlantic first baseman, who was considered as one of many extra polished faculty hitters within the draft and a candidate to achieve the majors in a rush. As a junior at FAU, Schanuel hit .447/.615/.868 with 19 residence runs and 14 stolen bases in 15 makes an attempt. That’s a masher, even when he wasn’t taking part in in a serious convention.
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t contact a draft prospect like Schanuel with a 10-foot pole. Not within the first spherical, and undoubtedly not within the high 15. Beginner first basemen have a low ceiling due to their restricted defensive potential, and anybody who’s taking part in first base at 18 or 20 years previous normally isn’t going to finish up stealing lots of bases when he’s 28 or 30. Like operating backs in soccer, MLB groups prevented such first basemen excessive within the draft for some time as soon as scouting and draft evaluation grew to become extra systematized.
Then Paul Goldschmidt, Rhys Hoskins, and Pete Alonso got here alongside and proved that faculty first basemen, even right-right faculty first basemen, can flip into worthwhile large leaguers, even stars. Just a few years later, Spencer Torkelson, Andrew Vaughn, and Evan White got here alongside and bolstered the danger inherent in such a prospect not popping out and raking instantly. The wheel within the sky retains on turnin’, because the poet mentioned.
Greater than that, I don’t like spending a excessive first-round choose on a participant for the specific objective of getting assist to the majors rapidly. That’s the place you draft (hopefully) your subsequent All-Star, not midseason reinforcements. However the Angels have been in a singular place, in order that they took Schanuel and put him to work.
Lower than six weeks elapsed from draft night time to Schanuel’s main league debut. That’s not a very long time to study.
“Every part’s a bit bit quicker every step of the way in which,” he says. “Once I first acquired to Arizona, to after I went to Alabama, and now right here, every step will get a bit bit quicker. You simply attempt to gradual your self down, little changes like that.”
It positive didn’t look like he wanted to study a lot. The person had posted Barry Bonds’ 2004 season, plus 85 factors of batting common, in his draft yr. In 22 minor league video games throughout three ranges, he hit a cumulative .365/.505/.487 with 21 walks and simply 10 strikeouts. His two-game cease at Inland Empire of the California League was significantly fruitful: In two video games, he went 5-for-6 with a stroll, a sacrifice fly, and a hit-by-pitch. That’s .833/.778/.883, which I believe is a singular slash line for a minor league cease of any size.
“I’ve seen the ball rather well,” Schanuel says. “Every part’s going my manner. However I did have a nasty at-bat the place I rolled over and it discovered the opening. I’d say I acquired fairly fortunate. In baseball, it’s half luck. You could possibly hit a ball 110 mph for 4 at-bats and go 0-for-4, or you can hit 4 balls 60 mph and go 4-for-4 with 4 singles.”
And since reaching the majors, Schanuel has not seen the ball any much less properly. He’s recorded no less than one hit in every of his first 10 large league video games, the longest hitting streak to start out a profession in Angels historical past.
One of many extra essential non-Ohtani, non-Trout questions dealing with the Angels within the close to time period is that this: How good can Schanuel be?
I actually do not know, is the extraordinarily unsatisfying reply. And that’s why I’ve come to love him, now that he’s within the majors. Schanuel has one distinctive talent, and one extraordinarily odd high quality to his recreation that giveth and taketh away.
That talent is the power to get on base. Schanuel instructed Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register how, in faculty, he’d depart the batting cage if he swung at a ball or took a strike. Over time, he developed a preternatural skill to separate wheat from chaff, and to date that talent has translated to the majors. A pair occasions in the course of the Angels’ go to to Philadelphia, I seen that Schanuel acquired barely however visibly miffed after taking known as strikes on pitches barely outdoors the zone. This from a man who was in faculty so just lately, any open condiments he left in his dorm fridge are in all probability all nonetheless good.
No matter occurs, Schanuel goes to attract lots of walks, and he’s not going to get himself out swinging at trash.
So let’s speak concerning the bizarre factor: His batting stance.
The primary MLB RBI for @NSchanuel! ?#GoHalos pic.twitter.com/tMm9deLH0X
— Los Angeles Angels (@Angels) August 24, 2023
Schanuel hits standing straight up, along with his arms manner over his head and his again arched. He stays again as he takes a giant leg kick, after which brings his arms down and thru the ball. That’s how he’s hit since his freshman yr at FAU.
“I didn’t hit any residence runs in highschool and felt like I wanted to make a change to unlock some energy,” Schanuel says. “Proper after I acquired on campus, hitting coach Greg Mamula [now the head coach at the University of Delaware] helped me unlock that. After that, all of it opened up. It actually lets me get into my again hip and again knee, and get my arms prolonged.”
Let’s come again to the facility in a minute.
Schanuel’s hand place and again posture invitations comparability to Craig Counsell.
However the parallels disintegrate round belt-level. Counsell hit from a wide-open stance, along with his legs splayed in a deep crouch. Type of like Jeff Bagwell in a corset. Schanuel is extra upright (along with being a lot taller than Counsell to start out with) and stands along with his ft degree, proper on high of the plate.
And I do imply proper on high of the plate. He’s acquired the balls of his ft on the within chalk of the batter’s field. It’s doable to face nearer to the plate, I suppose, however provided that you put on size-eight footwear.
As you may anticipate, this implies Schanuel will get hit with lots of pitches. Between faculty, the minors, and his stint with the majors, Schanuel has worn it 21 occasions this yr in simply 91 video games. On condition that he wears a large elbow guard and holds his arms so excessive, he doesn’t carry any uncommon threat of getting plunked within the arms or wrist and struggling something worse than a bruise.
Talking because the founder (and doubtless solely member) of the Brandon Guyer fan membership, this delights me. Getting hit that a lot has an apparent constructive impression, so to talk, on Schanuel’s on-base share. He acquired hit 40 occasions in 172 video games on the faculty degree, the place pitcher command is worse and hit batters are a bit extra widespread. But when he can get hit simply 20 occasions a season, that would add as a lot as 35 factors to his OBP over the course of a yr.
Now, for higher or worse, it’s time to speak about Schanuel’s energy.
You might need seen a standard theme about Schanuel’s numbers on the skilled degree, each his minor league stats and his .324/.457/.351 main league slash line via 10 video games. Particularly: He’s on base continuously, however isn’t precisely placing up excellent energy numbers for a primary baseman.
That’s due to the swing, which for all its different virtues has Schanuel attacking down on the ball. Consequently, he hits lots of groundballs. That’s not inherently a nasty factor. Dylan Crews acquired dinged for being too ground-and-pound earlier than the draft as properly. (This was the Paul Skenes’ fastball form of place gamers on this draft class, the fault that acquired talked up so folks wouldn’t assume these vastly hyped prospects have been actually good.) Even for a nook man, it’s not a deadly flaw. Christian Yelich gained an MVP when he was among the many league leaders in groundball fee.
Sadly, “down” isn’t the place the house runs are. It issues much less how sturdy and prolonged Schanuel will get if he’s beating the ball into the grass. At this level in his profession, it’s in all probability not honest to deal with Schanuel’s batted ball stats as something greater than anecdotal. However with that caveat, he’s put 12 balls in play with a median launch angle of 1.9 levels, which might tie Tim Anderson for the bottom common launch angle within the league.
Of the 31 balls Schanuel has put in play within the majors, 17 have been grounders and 13 of these have been hit at a destructive launch angle. He can hit the ball onerous; he has 10 line drives this yr as properly. And whereas Schanuel isn’t the most important 6-foot-4, 220-pound athlete I’ve ever seen, he’s solely 21 and is lean in such a manner that it wouldn’t shock me if he placed on extra muscle within the subsequent couple years. It’s not an enormous stretch to think about him as an elite all-fields line drive hitter.
However till and except he learns to maintain the ball off the deck, Schanuel’s uncommon swing leaves him weak in two areas. The primary is that his energy may not translate as properly to extra-base hits as would equal energy on a extra conventional swing. Schanuel’s 12 large league hits comprise 11 singles and one double down the fitting discipline line.
The second disadvantage is that hitters who hit the ball onerous and on the bottom can hit into bucketloads of double performs, significantly hitters like Schanuel who don’t run all that properly. This yr at FAU, Schanuel hit into 11 double performs, which is as many as any two of his teammates put collectively. The Owls performed 59 video games this season, of which Schanuel appeared in 58. Over the course of a 162-game season, that’s a 30-GIDP tempo. It’s been 9 years since anybody grounded into that many double performs in a season, and there have been simply 18 seasons of 30 or extra double performs in all of MLB historical past.
However, the 16 gamers who’ve breached the 30-double play barrier (Jim Rice did it thrice) embody seven Corridor of Famers, two non-Corridor of Famers who gained MVP awards (Miguel Tejada and Jackie Jensen), and Matt Holliday, who made seven All-Star groups and almost gained an MVP himself. So perhaps Schanuel ought to simply hold doing what he’s doing.
Between his talent set, uncommon method, and distinctive skilled improvement path (or no less than, uniquely brief skilled improvement path), there’s not a participant on the market fairly like Schanuel. That makes him troublesome to venture, however completely fascinating to comply with.