Andrew Romine Angels Top Prospect #20

On March 29, we interviewed Ryan Ghan on LunchTime HaloTalk, our weekly live internet radio show. Ryan is the master minor league analyst covering this team and we had him on with a preseason Top 20 Angels Prospects. With the recent amateur draft and rookie ball Orem opening its season in a week, it is time to look at Ryan's Full Top 20 Angels Prospects List. We start with a player who was called up to the majors just yesterday. At #20, infielder Andrew Romine.

RYAN GHAN: Well, I'm not going to start very originally here. I am going to put Andrew Romine at Number 20. He is a shortstop. We saw a lot of him in spring training, played in Double-A last year and this is where the OC Register had him. Baseball America didn't have him at 20 but they had him right around there. You know, the ceiling isn't huge with Romine. He is never going to hit the ball a mile, but he plays a very good shortstop, a very, very, very credible shortstop which is going to make him useful on somebody's major league roster. It might not be the Angels but he is going to get around to somebody, and you know, the bat is good. He was above average hitter last year in Double-A, and in that park, that's saying something. He gets on base. He works the count, hits line drives from both side of the plate. His line drive percentage was above 20% from both sides of the plate, so he can shoot the ball. He is a very, very good ball player.

REV HALOFAN: And he had a cup of coffee at the end of the year?

RGHAN: Yeah, he did. He did and you know, he didn't look all that great in spring training. His average wasn't where I'm sure he wanted to be. But he racked up a couple of doubles from both side of the plate and I'm thinking, you know, he won't have the pop in his bat or the eye that Maicer Izturis has. But Maicer is a pretty good comp in terms of defense and versatility. I think we are going to see Romine play a lot of second base, may be even a little bit of third base here in Salt Lake this year just to build, no doubt his versatility.

REVHF: I don't have any stats in front of me. Is Andrew Romine a switch hitter like Maicer is?

RGHAN: Yes. He is a switch hitter. He was a little bit better from the right side of the plate last year than he did from the left. But you know the numbers, the bat, the balls in play data, looks pretty similar from both sides. Using line drives on both sides of the plate, strikeouts were approximately the same, walks were about the same. He is an accomplished switch hitter and that's not an easy thing to do.

REVHF: Wow! All right! Andrew Romine! I am a little surprised. I gotta be honest, I wasn't thinking in that mold. But great, great! I mean I am maybe much more excited about the cup of, well look, maybe a little bit more than a cup of coffee. Maybe he'll get a cup of espresso out of Mike Scioscia this season. What do you think?

RGHAN: Well, I think it is some combination of Maicer, Erick Aybar or Alberto Callaspo and we'll be seeing him. It will just take two injuries and he'll be up.

Romine's numbers in AAA this year thru June 11:
54 Games, 220 Plate appearances
.268 BA, .329 OBP, .657 OPS, 16 SB/4 CS, four doubles, 2 HR
AGE: 25 years, 6 months