Recently in an interview with the Orange County Register, Angels general manager Billy Eppler stated that, “We have guys who have played second base on the roster, but no one who has played 120 to 130 games (in a season) to date at second base,” he continued by saying, “that would be nice to find, but if we can’t, we have candidates internally who can shore up the position.”
So what does he mean when he says that we actually have candidates internally that can fill that position? I highly doubt that second base will be played by committee because it would ruin the chemistry with Andrelton Simmons at short. Judging by Eppler’s response, he is not going to be gunning for a free agent like Neil Walker, he really would prefer to go internal as far that is concerned.
Personally, I think that he will be using someone who has been in the Angels farm system for a while, who instead of going in with the mentality to go and just “play ball”. He wants someone with something to prove, someone that is going to come up and give their all on every single play. The person that perfectly fits the bill, is a second basemen by the name of, David Fletcher.
Who is David Fletcher? Where did that guy come from? Wouldn’t it be better just to go after a free agent? The issue with going after a free agent can be summed up in one horrible deal, the Josh Hamilton deal. Free agents want a ton of money, for a non guaranteed effort in a lot of cases.
As far as where David came from, he is a local boy, which helps prove he will play his hardest. He was born in Orange, CA and raised in Cypress, CA both of those cities are in Orange County, the same county that Anaheim is in.
David was drafted in the 6th round by the Los Angeles Angels in 2015, since then he has a minor league career batting average of .292.
The rest of his stats in the minors are as follows, .345 OBP, .377 slugging percentage, and .722 OPS. On the defensive side of the ball, in his minor league career he has an overall fielding percentage of .987, almost perfect.
After all the free agent deals the Angels have gotten screwed on, it would be nice to see homegrown talent for once.