Josh Spence (Angels 3rd round pick) is on RIGHT now

If you tune to ESPN they are showing the Az State vs UNC game and the battery for the Sun Devils are both Angels draft picks. So far Spence has gotten through 3 scoreless innings.

over 2 years ago MH252525 5 comments 0 recs |

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Thanks for the link!

Just ran down to the tv and watched Ramirez hit and Spence pitch the fifth. Spence was awesome – he gave up a seeing-eye, groundball single to 2nd overall pick Dustin Ackley after taking him to a 1 and 2 count, then got a K, another groundball that should have been a double play, regained his composure, and picked off the guy on first. He’s a soft-tossing side armer, but gets tremendous downward motion on a slider, curve, and fastball (he’s known to have more pitches, but those are the one’s I saw).

Hopefully these two guys will be in Orem in a couple of weeks

by rghan on Jun 14, 2009 1:06 PM PDT reply actions

Here's what John Sickles had to say about Spence

Third round Arizona State junkballer Josh Spence doesn’t have a fastball, but has superb pitching instincts and could reach the majors very soon, at least in a utility pitcher role. I wouldn’t bet against him.

by rghan on Jun 14, 2009 2:01 PM PDT up reply actions

Lefty specialist or Jamie Moyer?

Okay so obviously Moyer is something different, but it’ll be interesting to see how Spence’s stuff translates into the pro’s. The stuff, as rghan noted, looked good. He seemed to do a really good job at keeping the hitters off balance with all of the different off-speed pitches. I thought he looked more like a 3/4’s delivery guy as opposed to side-armer, though i do recall reading somewhere that he changes his arm slots on different pitches depending on the situation.

Ramirez looked okay….he had a nice single to drive in a run in extra innings. The bad body criticism looks to be fairly legit though. To put it kindly he certainly doesn’t look like the most fit guy in the world and it’ll be interesting if that’ll prevent him from staying behind the plate.

For anyone who watched the game, were you able to notice if Ramirez was calling the game or if the coach was calling it from the dugout?

by HaloFanInDC on Jun 14, 2009 9:37 PM PDT up reply actions

Jeff Mathis and GMJ

are probably two of the most in shape guys on the whole team. For whatever that’s worth.

I’ve seen Spence twice now on TV. I’m not a scout by any means, but man he has good off-speed stuff and he can throw it for strikes at anytime. Also seems like when he’s ahead in the account, he doesn’t do full on waste pitches that no one but Howie or GMJ would swing at. They are great pitchers pitches that are definitely balls, but too close to take.

by MH252525 on Jun 15, 2009 6:49 AM PDT up reply actions

Here's some info on Spence from BA

Arizona State lefthander Josh Spence is hard for hitters—and scouts—to figure out . . . . His fastball peaks at 87 mph, and he uses it well to set up his four offspeed pitches: a changeup, curveball, slider and cutter. He’ll throw any of the pitches in any count and any sequence. He throws from a lower three-quarters arm slot and will even throw some of his breaking balls sidearm . . . . But it’s not just smoke and mirrors with Spence. His changeup and slider are legitimate plus pitches, and scouts say he shows the hand speed with his slider to indicate that his fastball velocity could improve . . . . Scouts love his makeup; they’re just not certain how his repertoire will play in pro ball . . . . He’ll likely be drafted by a more statistically inclined team or one with extra picks.

by G Abbes on Jun 14, 2009 4:04 PM PDT reply actions