Angels 25-year-old reliever Darren O’Day made his first major league appearance on Monday, getting himself out of a jam in the 8th by striking out the Twins’ Brendan Harris and inducing a flyout from Adam Everett. Although he’d never played above Double-A, O’Day went 3-0 with a 2.04 ERA in 17 2/3 innings this spring, and found a spot on the roster when 4 of their pitchers wound up on the DL.

Quick note on the Angels’ pitching situation: Kelvim Escobar is potentially done for the season, and I can’t be the only one who thinks that John Lackey’s injury is more significant than the Angels are letting on. Perhaps that will keep Nick Adenhart in the starting rotation longer than expected, and could create a regular bullpen job for O’Day. A shakeup appears imminent in Anaheim.

Angels pitching prospect Nick Adenhart got knocked around for 7 runs in 4 innings on Tuesday, raising his spring ERA from 2.93 to 5.16. This doesn’t help his bid to replace John Lackey as the 5th starter until Lackey returns in April from a right triceps strain. Still, manager Mike Sciocia has not ruled out Adenhart, who is competing with Dustin Moseley for the job. Sciocia likes Adenhart’s stuff, and mentioned that these types of outings will happen and chalked it up to a learning experience.

Nick Adenhart has a chance to make the pitching rotation because of holes opened by injuries to John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar. Lackey and Escobar will probably be out until early to mid-May due to a tricep/elbow and shoulder injury respectively. Adenhart has made 65 appearances in the Minors over 3 seasons and is 28-15 with a 3.11 ERA. Referring to his youth and lack of experience, manager Mike Scioscia said:

“If we feel he’s ready he’s going to be a candidate. At times a young talent outplays experience. We’ve seen it with a lot of our young players.”

Brandon Wood appears to have found his stroke. He blasted a two-run homer and had a deep double in the Angels’ victory against the Cubs last week. Coming into the game he only had two hits, both homers, in 28 at-bats. The two hits brings his spring avg up to .125. Wood is still a decent backup to Chone Figgins at 3B.

With news coming out today that Angels’ ace John Lackey re-injured his right arm and will miss the first month of the season, an opening in the rotation has emerged.  While these seems to be devastating news for the Halos, there could be a silver lining.  Top pitching prospect Nick Adenhart is in the running for a spot on the rotation.  Adenhart entered the game on Saturday to replace the ailing Lackey, and proceeded to pitch four innings.  While he did yield three runs on four hits, skipper Mike Scioscia called it Adenhart’s best outing of the spring.  This kid certainly has the tools to be a stud this season; it’s only a matter of whether or not he has enough experience to compete at the big league level.  When asked about his chances at making the rotation, Scioscia had this to say:

“If we feel he’s ready, he’s going to be a candidate. At times a young talent outplays experience. We’ve seen it with a lot of our young players. He has an incredible future. Where he is now is something we’re going to pay attention to and talk about in coming weeks. We don’t want to rush him — Nick doesn’t have the experience — but his talent will allow him to play at this level.”

This is definitely a situation to keep tabs on.  If Adenhart seizes this opportunity and makes the big league rotation, he could pitch his way into a permanent role, even after Lackey’s return.

As usual, some great prospect tidbits out of a few blog entries by ESPN’s Keith Law (Link to first entry; Link to second entry). Law is in Arizona with his family, and these are a few notable comments he had about a few prospects he watched play. Gives you a more scout-like perspective of how these guys are playing.

• Law saw Angels’ top pitching prospect Nick Adenhart pitch four innings against the A’s. His two best pitches, a late-action two-seamer fastball and a deep breaking curveball, both looked very good and were well used by Adenhart. His third pitch, a changeup, wasn’t performing quite as well. Adenhart will need to develop his ability to use this pitch if he’s to realize the lofty projections anointed him.
• We’ve mentioned the huge three-run bomb that A’s prospect Daric Barton hit in his first game back after injuring his wrist. Well, Law cautions that we shouldn’t get too excited about this HR as it was hit off of non-prospect Matt Wilhite, whose arm-slot is uber conducive to a swing like Barton’s.
• Bad news on one of our top rookie breakout candidates, Rockies’ SP Franklin Morales. We were excited by the news that Cook and Hirsch had both been temporarily shelved, seemingly opening a door in the rotation for Morales. Law noticed, however, that Morales’ velocity was way down at a point in the spring where most pitchers are getting up to their normal speeds. Law spoke with a scout who had noticed the same thing in his previous start as well. Let’s be clear, it was Morales mid to high 90’s velocity coupled with his devastating slider that made him look so good last year. If he doesn’t have that stuff back come season start, Morales could be in a world of hurt.
• We’ve also noted that Rockies prospect Jayson Nix appears to be the front runner for the starting 2B job. Law thinks it will be a short-lived tenure for Nix, though. He notes that Nix’s swing is too long, and he struggles to connect with any decent fastball or breaking ball.
• Law also watched Giants flamethrower Erik Threets in one inning of work. Law wasn’t too enamored with Threets, who surprised him with a solid inning of work. Threets is throwing in the mid to high 90’s, but doesn’t have a second pitch to back it up.

Most teams have made their final cuts of spring training over the past few days.  This means that the remaining players not cut will more than likely spend the remainder of the spring with their respective teams.  We’ve listed below the more noteworthy prospects who have been sent back to the minors:

• Wade Davis, RHP, Rays
• Jake McGee, LHP, Rays
• Adam Miller, RHP, Indians
• Chuck Lofgren, LHP, Indians
• Mike Aubrey, 1B, Indians
• Danny Moskos, LHP, Pirates
• Collin Balester, RHP, Nationals
• Tyler Clippard, RHP, Nationals
• Garrett Mock, RHP, Nationals
• Ross Detwiler, LHP, Nationals
• Greg Reynolds, RHP, Rockies
• Casey Weathers, RHP, Rockies
• Max Ramirez, C, Rangers
• Chris Davis, 1B, Rangers
• German Duran, 2B, Rangers
• Elvis Andrus, SS, Rangers
• Justin Masterson,  RHP, Red Sox
• Michael Bowden, RHP, Red Sox
• Deolis Guerra, RHP, Twins
• Jordan Walden, RHP, Angels
• Matt Wieters, C, Orioles

A couple of notes on some AL West prospects:

• MLB.com reports Angel’s 3B Brandon Wood hit a solo shot in the 5th inning off the White Sox’s Lance Broadway on Tuesday. Broadway gave up a total of zero home runs with a 0.87 ERA in four major league appearances last year. A good sign for Wood, who has had some injury concerns, although his .154 OBP so far this spring is a little disconcerting.
• Jim Street of MLB.com writes that Phillippe Aumont was very effective in his first game against professional hitters. The 6′ 7″ 220 pound Quebec native retired 3 of the 4 hitters he faced on Wednesday, yielding only an infield single, and featured a 95 mph fastball with impressive movement. Aumont has not pitched in a real game since November, when he played for Team Canada in the World Cup in Taiwan.

Angels number 1 prospect Brandon Wood added about 15 pounds of muscle to his upper body in the off-season, and on Friday the resulting power-boost was very apparent. Wood’s game-winning 2-R bomb on Friday against the Rangers has many fans wondering when the 23 year old prospect will bring that kind of production to the major league lineup. As Lyle Spencer of MLB.com reports, Wood thinks his chances of making the opening roster are unlikely as he rests 3rd on the depth chart at shortstop and third. The biggest challenge for Wood right now is still cutting down on his strikeouts. According to Bill Plunkett of the OC Register, Wood became too focused on not striking out last season which may have actually done more harm than good. In five minor-league seasons Wood has struck out nearly once in every 3 1/2 at-bats. Manger Mike Scioscia thinks that it is just a matter of experience:

“He’s definitely shown that he has a power bat that’s legitimate to play in the major leagues. I think experience … will start to narrow that gap and maybe the strikeouts will be a little fewer and far between.”

“Pitch selection and pitch recognition is an issue for any young player,” [Scioscia] explained. “You start to get into that mode of understanding your zone and learn what pitchers do to you and the way they may be trying to attack you to get you out. “

The Angels shouldn’t be the only ones hoping that Wood gets more patient at the plate. If called up, Wood could have a big impact in a fantasy owner’s lineup, because despite his high K/AB ratio he still sports a .350 OBP (he gets on base) and .520 slugging percentage (107 HR in 5 minor league seasons). It’s just a matter of time before his pitch recognition improves and these numbers go up even higher.

MiLB.com put together a compilation of the best Q&A’s from their recent MLB.com Mailbags. We’ve summarized some of the prospect-related news below:

• Rockies’ prospect Greg Reynolds has been throwing well this Spring. If he keeps it up he could find himself starting at Triple-A Colorado Springs. If all goes well this season and he doesn’t suffer any setbacks after shoulder surgery, he could potentially be up in 2009. BA has him ranked at #98 overall in 2008.
• Two top pitching prospects in the Angels’ organization more than likely won’t be called up this year. The article describes Nick Green’s changeup as the best in the entire organization, with no lack of confidence to boot. Meanwhile, Nick Adenhart looks like the makings of a future staff ace. We probably won’t see either one up in 2008, though.
• With Yovani Gallardo probably starting the season on the DL, Carlos Villanueva could find himself in the starting rotation for the Brewers. This would put hot prospect Manny Parra either in the ‘pen or back at Triple-A. The writer suggests the Brewers might use Parra the same way they used Gallardo last season, as a mid-season injury replacement. Pay attention to this Parra kid; with almost a K/9, his stuff is nasty.
• Dbacks’ fans have been spoiled with some fantastic hitting prospects the past few years. Well now they can look forward to a few years of fantastic pitching prospects as well. The article says to look out for Max Scherzer (RHP, #66 on BA), Esmerling Vasquez (RHP), Jarrod Parker (RHP, #46 on BA), Hector Ambriz (RHP) and Brooks Brown (RHP).
• Folks in the Rays’ camp are so impressed with David Price, he has them “breathing in brown paper bags”. Even so, he is expected to start in high Single-A, but progress very quickly. This is definitely a prospect to watch. There is also note that both Jake McGee and Wade Davis will probably start the season at Triple-A. These three pitching prospects were ranked 10th, 15th and 17th respectively. That with James Shields and Scott Kazmir could be a pretty filthy rotation.

Quick rundown on a couple of the Angels’ top prospects:

• Considered by many to be the top prospect in the Angel’s system, Nick Adenhart is poised for a call up in ‘09. That is, as long as the 21 year old has a big year with Triple-A Salt Lake, according to Lyle Spencer of MLB.com. The fireballer has a fastball that currently tops out at 97 mph, a good changeup and “unbelievable curveball” according to fellow prospect Nick Green.
• According to Ken Peters (AP Sports Writer) Brandon Wood is expected to slide back to shortstop for part of the time to prepare at both SS and 3B at Triple-A Salt Lake.
  

  “Brandon’s going to get reacquainted with shortstop,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said Wednesday. “We’re going to work him out at shortstop early, then flip him over to third base.”

  The only thing holding Wood back right now (as is true with many prospects) is his strike zone judgment. He could see some action this year if the Angels have injury problems.