The Angels have agreed to a deal with right-hander Sam Bachman, their top pick in this month’s amateur draft, reports Carlos Collazo of Baseball America (via Twitter). The now-former Miami (Ohio) University hurler will take home a $3,847,500 bonus that checks in more than a million dollars south of the $4,949,100 value of Bachman’s No. 9 overall slot.
The 21-year-old Bachman, listed at 6’1″ and 235 pounds, posted ridiculous numbers in his junior season. Through 59 2/3 innings, he pitched to a 1.81 ERA while striking out 41 percent of his opponents against just a 7.5 percent walk rate. He allowed just one home run all season and, in three years of NCAA ball, surrendered just four long balls through a total of 159 innings.
Bachman was seen as a slam-dunk first rounder thanks to some of the best raw stuff in the entire draft. Baseball America’s scouting report on the RedHawks ace indicated that both his fastball and slider have received 70 grades on the 20-80 scale, with some scouts even putting an 80 on both pitches. The Athletic’s Keith Law wrote that Bachman had the “best one-two punch in the draft and should be a top ten pick.” Law ranked Bachman as the draft’s No. 9 player, and he ranked 14th both at Baseball America and at MLB.com. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen had Bachman listed 18th, and ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel ranked him 29th.
Bachman isn’t without his concerns, however. He missed a pair of starts early in the college season due to arm troubles and gives scouts some pause because of his delivery. Bachman has a third offering, a changeup, that some reports grade as above-average, but he rarely used it this season. All of that leads to some concern that he’s a reliever rather than a starter, but he’d have a good chance at being an impact bullpen piece even if he goes that route.
Bachman headlined an Angels draft class comprised entirely of pitchers. The Halos not only exclusively selected pitchers this year but went with college arms for 19 of their 20 picks. The lone exception was high school lefty Mason Albright in the 12th round — a lefty who landed 122nd on MLB.com’s rankings and 135th at Baseball America but is committed to Virginia Tech. It’s possible that the $1.1MM or so in savings on the Bachman pick will be used to try to sway Albright from that commitment and get him into the Angels’ system.
Great pick. He’s the only guy in the draft that I can see coming up this year.
With the money they saved, I would have liked for them to have been more aggressive in drafting higher upside players in rounds 2-4
Take a look at round 6-12 ton of talent and high schoolers too. Everyone talking smack about not getting rocker and they get a guy for way cheaper which allows the to add much more talent than one guy.
Exactly. Due to the 5 round draft last year, this draft was basically 2 drafts in one.
If ever there was a year to spread the bonus money around and pay over slot for a few guys, this was the year.
Pittsburgh played that strategy perfectly IMO.
What high schoolers? Angels drafted 1
None of us mentioned high schoolers but Mason Albright is almost certainly going to benefit here. I was surprised he was available in the 12th due to his likely asking price.
And while college juniors don’t have a ton of leverage, they can return to school.
what good is getting a 10th round pick high schooler signed over-slot if you are not getting the most talented in the 1st? rocker is hurt? what pitchers don’t get hurt before they come up to the bigs these days?
The odds of getting a good player in a specific round after round five are very small. Maybe once every 20 drafts if you are lucky.
Smart teams take the best player available. It’s how the Angels got Weaver. He was the 12th pick in the draft and got the highest bonus.
The Angels drafted a probable relief pitcher. No one likes RP more than me, but a teams highest pick this century should not have been a probable relief pitcher.
JJ, you are correct, he’s the wild card.
As a Mets fan growing up living in Angel Honk land I follow and root for them both; does not seem like it will be a conflict too soon anyway.
I love the pick of Bachman and all pitchers in a deep draft.
I was not to happy about rocker going to the Mets and glad the Angels passed on him. Rocker’s velocity dropped a lot the past year a real warning sign for a such a big physical guy. That is why he dropped so low in the draft and Mets paid high on him for that slot.
Fatigue may make you lose velocity during the game but not from the start like rocker.
Nice, this kid signed for 2.1 million less which should help sign a few more of the other high upside picks. Not to mention Angels absolutely need bullpen arms. Bachman could turn into a Garret Crochet/Kopech type of arm that starts out in the bullpen and maybe transitions into the rotation after a year or two. Good deal.
1.1 million not 2.1
I’m not talking about under slot value. I’m talking about less than Kumar Rocker. Kumar received a 6 million bonus and Bachman received 3,847,500 which is 2.1 million difference. People were writing off the Angels for making this pick but it makes a lot of sense as to why.
Agree. Rocker is also trending in the wrong direction.
yeah. angels been doing that for longer than a decade. so how many aces have they produced? if you have been failing for a decade or so, you gotta do something differently!
Chill, its a completely new regime and this was their first draft. This is the firs draft in half a decade that wasnt all toolsy HS hitters. It is clearly different.
Why does it make sense? I guess it didn’t make sense to draft Weaver #12 because he wanted a big signing bonus, who got the largest in the draft. The Angels should have drafted Bill Bray who went one pick later and signed for less than half of what Weaver signed for.
@Halo11Fan It makes sense because 1.88ERA, 0.77 WHIP, 93 SO in 59 innings. He has two 70-80 grade pitches already. He has added 10mph to his fastball over the past 3 years while Rocker’s fastball is headed in the other direction. He is not a reach and worthy of the #9 selection.
The Angels have a lot of holes to fill on the pitching staff next year. Bachman is the most major league pitcher right now. This is another reason why this pick makes sense. He can be fast tracked as a reliever and fill one of those holes.
He’s a two pitch pitcher who has a delivery that is unsustainable as a starter. He is a relief pitcher.
He can help the team in relief, but that is much easier to obtain in the off season. This team ignored relief pitching in the off season and spent the best draft pick they have had this century on a probable RP. That is beyond belief.
I can not remember a more incompetent season by an Angels GM. I typically don’t get this upset with GMs, but Perry deserves to be attacked for his incompetence. He threw away this season, no one else.
They said this about Detmers last year and he’s still in AA.
Do you not think he was limited in budget? Or that the plan was to make a big splash this next offseason with a ton of money coming off the books? Additionally relief pitching is so fickle that it’s not worth a big investment. While Perry has not been a godsend he’s certainly better than than Eppler, Dipoto, or Reagins. He’s at least trying to change the narrative of the Angels having a terrible farm system because they only draft guys that can also dunk. Jo Adell and Jordyn Adams are not the answer.
Detmers is fine AA is better for developing pitchers than the PCL.
Detmers is striking out 16 men per nine innings. He made the Future games. He’s a very good prospect and I’m thrilled the Angels have him.
I hated Reagans. I thought he was incompetent. As for Eppler and DiPoto, I could at least see what they were trying to do.
That’s why I typically don’t get on GMs. It’s a tough job. See a problem, try to address the problem, and hopefully you’ll choose the right guy.
Perry didn’t do that. There was a super obvious problem with the bullpen and he used the hope and prayer method thinking it would resolve itself.
It was the single dumbest off season I can ever remember an Angel GM having. Every Angel fan should have seen this coming.
Relax Debbie downer and half empty guy. I’ll take this from your own post, you’re fine with Dip and Epp, and not Perry? Perry did the same as the previous 2 guys in pot shoting for relievers, with little money in his 1st year. Its only 1 miss for Perry’s pen, and a lot of misses for the previous 2 GM’s on building there pens…. Sit back, smoke a fatty and chill. Give Perry a chance.
I was right. Period. Being honest is honest. Pretending I’m a downer is not. A bullpen guy comes in when the game is close, allows multiple runs and you blame the starter. That’s not honest.
@Halos11Fan The fact that Bundy and Quintana have been demoted to the bullpen and Canning being sent to the minors, should tell you that the starting pitchers have not done their job. Heaney should also be demoted or sent down. You can’t put all the Angels struggles on the bullpen. The starters have been just as bad, if not worse.
“They said this about Detmers last year and he’s still in AA.”
I dont know about that. The biggest question mark about Detmers was his velocity. When he was drafted, he was 89-92. Now he is 90-94, so slightly better.. The lack of velocity is still a concern at the major league level.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Bachman is in the angel bullpen soon
If he stays healthy, he sure profiles a lot like someone’s who’s name rhymes with “shake up Lê bomb”
Im not sure that anyone profiles like him.
Great pick and overall a great Angels draft. We addressed our future pitching shortage.
I was wondering how the Angels would be able to sign Mason Albright. Now I know.
I like it.
Now that the Angels have signed BACHMAN, they intend to focus on the signing of
TURNER and OVERDRIVE !!
Taking care of business
Now if we can only get a manager that would let our starters go deeper in the game we’d probably be 10 games over 500 I would designate Claudio for assignment
In the last 2 to 3 weeks Joe Maddon hasn’t handled the starting pitching very well
At this point I think Angels are sellers start trading pieces
WHO’S GETTING TRADED
((Both Iglesias Andrew Haney And Watson Cobb traded)) Maybe Bundy for cash consideration
We’ll see soon enough in the next 7 games. These are are struggling teams the Angels are playing, so if they can’t pull out 6 of 7, Sell, sell, sell!
Might as well let the starters go a little deeper. Cishek allows half his inherited runs to score. They can stay in and give up 50% of their own runners.
Albright, not to sure if 1.1m would sway him away from college. He would of got that or close to it as a projected 4th rounder. They might have to save some more on slot money with picks 2 thru 4, and pony up a little more than that to sway him.
Good draft . I have a lot of confidence in his scouting and development of pitching. Look at all the good scouting director types he brought on board.. This is the perfect draft to have a strong scouting team. Has anyone notice all the Non Drafted signings? Way more than anyone else at around 20. with the short draft last year and the shorter draft this year there are still good players you can sign especially the collage players, plus $20,000 is the max bonus.
By the way the Angels aren’t the only ones picking collage pitchers , the Dodgers and Indians took almost all.
The only problem I have with collage players is that they spend too much time hanging around.
how do you know? it’s obvious you have never set a foot in one!
From a pitching scouting perspective is there any better company than the Dodgers and Indians other than maybe the Rays?
I haven’t had Bachman pretzels in the longest time. Any relation?
Two 70-80 grade pitches, above average change and command as evidenced by his strikeout and walk rates seems like a good starting point. Perhaps his delivery can be improved. Ditto for his change.
Even if Bachman is “just” a RP, his upside is thru the roof, isn’t it? If the Angels had a few more like him in the bullpen, they would be WC contenders this year… and last year… and…
I to believe it’s not a bad thing if he’s “just” an RP. Some on here just don’t seam to grasp the concept of, all really good BP’s are mainly constructed within. Sure throw some money at a closer, but No teams are throwing huge money at all of them, and busting budget over it. So, it’s ok if he’s “just” a RP, better be a real good one thou..hahaha
I agree. He has 2 elite pitches. I would be completely fine if he does not pan out as a starter and is our closer for the next 6 or 7 years. I liked it when we had Scot Shields and Frankie Rodriguez anchoring the back of our pen for years. Before that, it was Percival. Nowadays, we get a different closer every year. some hit and some miss. It doesn’t matter if they are good or bad, they are gone next year, where the Angels roll the dice on a new closer.
Very true, I know there stretching out C-Rod to start, but if it doesn’t work out for him, a Buchman – C-Rod backend looks promising for years to come. Then just go out and get a TOR starter to pair with Ohtani. Still, You might want to get that 1 year patch work closer you’re talking about, to see what you have within. 😉