Epic Fail: An Autopsy of the Brandon Wood Experiment

They had premium minor league #’s!!!! What happend

When a player performs so well in the minor leagues, and struggles so desperately in the major leagues, I can only look to the athletes mental toughness. The talent was never in question. Perhaps everyone’s hopes for him surpassed his ability to mentally adjust to the majors. Isn’t that what separates stars from average to below average athletes?

I’m still stupid enough to believe that Brandon can be successful in the majors, just not here in Anaheim. There has been too much damage done. He needs a fresh start somewhere without all those expectations that have done in so many “can’t miss” prospects.

His skills were promising, he just didn’t have it upstairs.

If only we were to be so fortunate. Considering how long the organization has stuck with Mathis, we might be in for another “experiment” at the beginning of next season.

He was handed a starting job, struggled, but not nearly as bad as others younguns we’ve given jobs too, then we immediately gave up on him (and I think played in Japan).

Like Wood, was a first round draft pick apparently (10th overall; I think Wood was something like 18th). Was anyone else on this list a first rounder?

If he flounders, I think the Angels will jump in the Beltre bidding, unfortunately. Should he succeed, we might be given another shot to take 3B next Spring and the Angels will try to land Crawford. Good luck Brandon, I’m still rooting for ya.

Sparky Anderson called him “Balsa” because whenever he made contact it looked as though his bat was made of balsa wood. Great defense though. At lease Wood isn’t Balsa.

Good thing for the Phillies, right after Vukovich they had another 3B prospect come up and fail to hit .200. They stuck with Michael Jack Schmidt though and he turned out OK.

When Brandon had his 43 homer year in Rancho people compared him to Mike Schmidt. We can still say that his career compares to an early 70’s Phillie 3B. Sadly it’s not Schmidt, it’s the other guy.

Even career journeyman minor leaguers. That’s why I believe he is ruined at this point. Somewhere, somehow he changed his stance, swing, approach etc. The video link above is helpful, but I would be interested in seeing video from 2005. Whether it was Scioscia, Hatcher, Eppard or Wood’s uncle, Brandon made an adjustment or two and has never recovered. Nobody, but nobody, could be that extreme from success to failure.

Bottom line, the management thought they could fix this guy, back when his numbers suggested there wasn’t much that needed fixing. They bring him up off and on, decide he can’t handle major league pitching when he wasn’t getting regular reps, and all of a sudden he’s a different guy. Instead of trading him while his stock was high and he was considered a top prospect, they tried to fix him. I believe half of his problem is based entirely on the sporadic play he got over the last 2 years. Ultimately, the front office missed their chance to get something out of a kid that I feel they ruined. Be it a trade, true everyday play, or employing someone who correct whatever issues warranted changing a swing and miss power guy into the limp dick guy we see every 6th day, they dropped the ball.

I mean, yeah, he definitely shouldn’t be as bad as he is. But I don’t think he was ever a projectable average-to-good major league hitter. Just because he came out of nowhere and hit 54 home runs doesn’t make him a good player, it makes him a lucky one, and the problems he had that season (lack of plate discipline and a fondness of the strikeout) never changed.

I think anything below .225 is fluky for Wood, but expecting .275 was probably unreasonable, particularly given his weak numbers in the AVG and OBP departments in an extremely hitter friendly minor league system.

It’s just as likely that I, nor any of us, have any idea what we’re talking about.

Well done.

First off, Wood and Mathis do not belong on a major league field in uniform with the expectation they put bat to ball. How did they get there? Could it be: the Mead Machine?

Let’s use the term to convey the PR Angels sell fans…“WE have an entire barn full of Hall of Fame minor league players. Relax.” The lie, by itself, is just part of selling tickets and maintaining a fan base. Now and then, a minor league player comes up and plays decent ball at the ML level. Bourjos is still adjusting, but shows he understands the PR machine is not going to keep him in center field in Anaheim. Morales and Howie also understood. Let us hope Trumbo and Conger understand it as well.

The point of all this is not what the Angels tell their fans but what it does to each individual player. Do some AAA players come to believe they really are the Second Coming? Wood might be an example. Add the timing issue. If Wood were as good as we have been told all these years, why didn’t they bring him up sooner? Someone should study the rate of assent [from A-AA- AAA to ML] of other clubs and see if the Angels string out their prospects tooooooo long.

Woods may be past his prime if he ever had any prime. Why protect Wood? [a “dow jones” decision, I’ve lost my ass for years on this stock, why not reinvest, maybe I can break even?….doesn’t work]. Good money after bad.

This brings us back to management. Why is Nap a catcher without and arm? Why does GM Scioscia keep a guy like Mathis? Who the hell is Bobby Wilson?

All the while…“Conger”, “Conger”, “Conger”.

We play 9 men on the field at one time. I really could give a shit what someone can do at A, AA, AAA. When the stand in the batters box it doesn’t make a bit of difference. So…Angel fan’s…why not give up on the PR Machine? Simply look to who puts the 9 men on the field and how they are performing. Any one of us could come up with over 110 different lineups in about 140 games and end up in third place. Third place…is Houston, Florida, Colorado, Detroit and Boston. None of us like Boston.