TEMPE, Ariz. \u2014 Christian Moore hit a 114 mph bullet right to San Francisco Giants\u2019 third baseman Matt Chapman, who caught it and converted it to a double play.<\/p>\n
That tough luck on Monday was typical for Moore\u2019s spring.<\/p>\n
The Angels\u2019 infielder ranks 11th in the majors this spring with an average exit velocity of 96 mph (minimum 25 plate appearances), but he\u2019s hitting just .219 (7 for 32) with a .599 OPS.<\/p>\n
By contrast, his average exit velocity last year in regular season games was 89 mph, when he hit .198 with a .655 OPS.<\/p>\n
Angels catcher Logan O\u2019Hoppe leads the majors this spring with an average of 100 mph. He\u2019s got more to show for it, with a .292 average, three homers and 1.143 OPS.<\/p>\n
Moore simply shrugs at his bad luck, satisfied that it\u2019s still a sign of progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely in the offseason, I wanted to make changes on my swing and get it more short, trying to hit the ball on the barrel more,\u201d Moore said. \u201cIt\u2019s showing up. Whether it falls or not, I\u2019m not really worried about that right now. I just want to make sure I\u2019m making consistent contact every day and making sure I\u2019m at least catching one barrel a day, and a legit barrel. That\u2019s kind of where my focus has been and it\u2019s been good so far.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manager Kurt Suzuki said he\u2019s been pleased with Moore\u2019s swings, despite the average.<\/p>\n
\u201cC-Mo\u2019s been having great at-bats obviously,\u201d Suzuki said. \u201cNot a lot to show for. He\u2019s hit some balls hard and on the screws and even the ones he pops up to, his fly balls to the outfield, those are great swings, just missing. But he\u2019s working. He\u2019s getting consistent with his swings and I think everything on the offensive side has been looking good.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of Moore\u2019s problems last season was strikeouts. He whiffed in 34% of his plate appearances, much worse than the big league average of 22%. In a small sample this spring, he\u2019s struck out 23% of the time.<\/p>\n
Moore is in a fight for a roster spot with a handful of other infielders. Adam Frazier, Vaughn Grissom, Oswald Peraza and Nick Madrigal are also candidates to play second. Grissom and Peraza are both out of options, and Frazier has an out allowing him to be a free agent if the Angels don\u2019t want him in the majors.<\/p>\n
Grissom, by the way, has also had rough luck this spring. He\u2019s tied with Moore for the major league lead in outs hit over 100 mph, with eight. Grissom also has just two strikeouts in 32 plate appearances, with four walks. He\u2019s hitting .192 (5 for 26).<\/p>\n
Moore has also been getting reps at third this spring. Yo\u00e1n Moncada figures to be the starter at third, but he\u2019s been injured often.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the challenge at third,\u201d Moore said. \u201cIt\u2019s been fun. I just want to be able to be on the team and be on the field playing with these guys. That\u2019s all I want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
NOTES<\/p>\n
Outfielder Josh Lowe (oblique) has been taking batting practice against game-speed velocity on a machine, moving him closer to being able to face live pitching in a game. Suzuki said that they \u201cwill shoot for Friday\u201d to get Lowe into a minor league game as the DH. Lowe can accelerate his preparation with minor league at-bats, so Suzuki they \u201care not worried\u201d about him having enough at-bats to be ready for Opening Day. \u2026<\/p>\n
Tyler Bremner, the Angels\u2019 top pitching prospect, is scheduled to make his Cactus League debut in relief on Wednesday against the Chicago White Sox in Glendale, Ariz. Bremner, the No. 2 pick in last summer\u2019s draft, hasn\u2019t yet pitched in a professional game of any kind. The Angels held him back this spring to have him work on his slider. \u201cI\u2019m excited,\u201d Suzuki said. \u201cI can\u2019t wait. I want to watch him pitch.\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n
Samy Natera Jr. continued the Angels\u2019 run of impressive pitching performances in the World Baseball Classic. Natera pitched a scoreless inning for Mexico against Team USA on Monday night. \u201cHe looked like a big league reliever out there, man,\u201d Suzuki said. \u201cHe looked really good and he wasn\u2019t afraid. That was definitely a nice thing to see.\u201d Right-hander Najer Victor (for Great Britain) and left-hander Sam Aldegheri (for Italy) have also had impressive outings in the WBC. \u2026<\/p>\n
Right-hander Alek Manoah is scheduled to start on Wednesday, an opportunity for him to bounce back from a nightmarish start last week. He gave up five runs in 2\u2153 innings, with five walks, against the A\u2019s. Meanwhile, one of the pitchers seemingly in competition with him for the No. 5 spot in the rotation \u2014 right-hander Jack Kochanowicz \u2014 just pitched four scoreless innings against the A\u2019s. \u201cI know Manoah\u2019s as competitive as they get and, you know, he wants to do well,\u201d Suzuki said, \u201cso I think he\u2019s taking every start, every inning that he pitches as important.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEMPE, Ariz. \u2014 Christian Moore hit a 114 mph bullet right to San Francisco Giants\u2019 third baseman Matt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2390],"tags":[291,5,1165,446,3223,774,56,3224,3222,4,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-617346","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-angels","8":"tag-angels","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-angels","12":"tag-laangels","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-angels","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangelesangels","17":"tag-mlb","18":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116206563927619333","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}