This has turned into another lost season for the Angels, who have slid to 64-70 and sit 13 games behind the second wild-card spot in the American League. Nevertheless, even when a team’s out of contention, it’s always a welcome sight when one of its top contributors is nearing a return from a long-term injury. That’s the case for infielder Tommy La Stella, whose dream season came to a halt July 3 after he suffered a brutal injury – a fractured tibia in his right leg. But La Stella’s now slated to take batting practice on the field for the first time Friday, Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com relays, adding that the 30-year-old is “hopeful” he’ll make it back during the Angels’ Sept. 9-15 homestand.
Before La Stella landed on the IL, he had emerged as one of baseball’s best low-cost pickups of last offseason. The Angels acquired La Stella from the Cubs for a meager return in late November, at which point he had combined to hit a useful but modest .264/.345/.366 with 10 home runs in 947 plate appearances between Chicago and Atlanta. This year’s version of La Stella has been vastly superior to the player who showed up from 2014-18.
Since joining the Angels, the lefty-swinging La Stella has slashed .300/.353/.495 with 16 HRs across 312 trips to the plate, owing in part to a remarkable ability to avoid strikeouts. The first-time All-Star has gone down on strikes just 8.7 percent of the time this season, making him a key reason why the Halos’ offense boasts the game’s second-lowest K rate. While La Stella hasn’t packed a wallop on the many occasions he has made contact (his average exit velocity of 87.9 mph and hard-hit rate rank near the bottom of the league, per Statcast), he has nonetheless mustered a respectable .352 expected weighted on-base average that almost matches his real wOBA of .362.
Along with breaking out at the plate, La Stella has provided the Angels 30-plus appearances at both second and third. And he could again serve as a versatile and affordable part of their roster next season. La Stella’s scheduled to go through arbitration for the final time in the offseason, when he’ll collect a raise on this year’s relatively cheap $1.35MM salary. Barring changes over the winter, La Stella may rejoin David Fletcher to comprise the Angels’ primary options at second and third in 2020.
Tommy Boy. Finish the year strong and come in 2020
Scooter Gennet version 2
Why is that?
He doesn’t know..
Smaller type second baseman with little power that all of a sudden finds a power stroke. Was it a insult? Cause I wasn’t intending it to be. People are way too quick to take offense at every single thing.
Nah, I was just goofing around. I actually think it’s jumping the gun a bit. Tommy boy’s gotta maintain his magic power spike for a bit longer.
Good recovwry but also q lie
Hoked on fonex werked 4 mi!
Good Luck. !
I was so bummed when the Braves traded away La Stella. He may not have been a star, but it seemed like he always put together a good at bat and really made the pitcher work
he always seemed to me like a pretty good bench guy. cant believe the Cubs dealt him in favor of Descalso.
Break Out and Comeback Players. (Incomplete)
C SEA Omar Narvaez / BOS Christian Vazquez
1B PIT Josh Bell / WSN Matt Adams
2B TEX Danny Santana / LAA Tommy LaStella
3B NYY Gio Urshela
SS CIN Jose Iglesias (began season on a MiLB contract)
NYM LF-3B J.D Davis
ARI CF-IF Ketel Marte
NYM RF-2B Jeff McNeil
TEX DH Hunter Pence
SP TEX Mike Minor
SP TEX Lance Lynn (Comeback Player of the Year)
SP DET Matt Boyd
id take Murphy over Narvaez here. Narvy’s numbers fit the direction they had been going the previous few years. Murphy’s uptick, specifically after leaving Colorado, surpises me a lot. Im usually a Dipoto doubter, but he swung two good moves to get those two. (even though i thought Narvy for Colome was a clear win from the start, and Murphy was clearly worth the shot over whichever 59th/60th best catcher in baseball they had slated as their #2 otherwise)
I agree, C SEA Tom Murphy is a better choice for break out season. My list is off the top of my head and incomplete.
Here’s a great example of stats (average exit velocity) and how they can be taken out of context. The article states that he has been remarkably hard to strike out. If you bat .300 but seldom strike out, you are making a lot of sub-par contact. Now, this also means that he’s probably not scorching the ball, but when you are that effective of a hitter and your outs come from groundouts and flyouts instead of K’s, there’s something to be said for that. You move runners over, you hit sac flies, you make the defense make plays. It adds in all of those hits but a guy like Acuna (not comparing, Acuna is better but he does lead in K’s) that K’s a lot is going to show a much higher average exit velocity because all of the K’s don’t show up there. This is the danger of taking certain things out of context and why the analytics age, while good for many things, should also lead us to be careful of which stats to which we cling.