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.

So, you’re diligently preparing for your fantasy draft and searching desperately for this year’s Ryan Braun - the rookie fantasy sleeper stud that takes everyone by surprise and catapults your squad to a championship. Unfortunately, all you can find are experts’ “Top 100 Prospect” lists, which include prospects that are still a year or two away, or so-called “Sleeper” lists consisting of 2nd and 3rd year players that everyone in your league has already heard of (and are already planning to draft before you). What if - hypothetically - someone had organized a constantly updated list of rookie fantasy sleepers, tiered by starting status, ranked by predicted fantasy impact, and linked to recent news on each rookie, that you could have running in the background of your draft as a quick reference?

• Look no further than the MLBProspectNews.com 2008 Rookie Fantasy Sleepers page, located under the MLBPN Features section of our navigation bar.

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.

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.