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Angels in AFL: Ward continues to open eyes
- Updated: October 25, 2016
Everyone, except perhaps the Angels, was surprised when the organization took Taylor Ward in the first round of the 2015 Draft. He had been ranked No. 99 on MLBPipeline.com’s Top 200 Draft prospects list heading into the Draft, a college backstop who would be helped by the lack of depth at the position in the class, but who many thought profiled as a future backup.
Since that time, the Angels’ No. 3 prospect has set out to prove all of those critics wrong. He certainly opened some eyes during his summer debut, advancing to full-season ball and hitting a combined .348/.457/.438 over 201 at-bats. That put him on a bit of a faster track, with the Angels feeling comfortable sending him to the Class A Advanced California League for his full-season debut.
The advanced placement looked to be a mistake at first. Ward hit .224 with a .541 OPS over the season’s first half, speaking to questions some had about his bat heading into the Draft. But the 22-year-old made some adjustments and started to show that perhaps the summer of 2015 wasn’t a fluke, hitting .274/.359/.415 with nine of his 10 home runs on the season in the second half. He’s brought that with him as one of the catchers on the Scottsdale Scorpions in the Arizona Fall League. His goal while in Arizona is a simple one.
“To honestly just improve on what I was doing at the end of this past season,” Ward said. “The last month of the season I was hitting pretty well and I kind of finished strong. It had been a down year and I was able to work on some timing and rhythm things. I hope I can continue that and continue to have success out here in the Fall League.”
There certainly seemed to be carry-over during the AFL’s first two weeks. Ward hit .353 with a pair of doubles and five RBIs in his first 17 at-bats for the Scorpions. He’s also able to continue to improve his catching with a higher level of arms to work with. Arm strength has never been a question for Ward, and he threw out 38 percent of would-be …
