ANAHEIM — Tyler Bremner’s stock might have slipped in the eyes of most draft analysts this season, but he shot to the top of the Angels’ draft board on Sunday when the team selected the UC Santa Barbara pitcher with the second overall pick.
The 6-foot-4, 190-pound right-hander went 5-4 with a 3.49 ERA in 14 starts for the Gauchos this season, striking out 111 and walking 19 in 77⅓ innings, but he seemed as surprised by the pick as many Angels fans who hoped the team would choose one of the more high-profile players available.
“Definitely just overwhelmed with shock and emotion,” Bremner said on a video call. “I don’t think this was really something that we thought was a possibility up until recently. So it was definitely a shock, and that’s kind of the emotion coming out. But it’s also just a really emotional time for me and my family right now.”
Bremner played his entire college career while his mother, Jennifer, battled breast cancer. Jennifer died on June 11 and was buried last week.
“She came out to all the games all the way up to the point where her body wouldn’t let her anymore,” Bremner said. “But she’s a fighter, and I know she’s out there watching. It’s weird in a way that I went to the Angels. It’s weird how life works.”
Bremner, a former San Diego Scripps Ranch High standout, features a lively fastball that sits in the 95-mph range and touches 98 mph and a plus changeup. But he struggled to throw his 87-mph slider for strikes this season, which is one reason he fell to No. 18 on MLB Pipeline’s draft ranking.
“We’ve been following Tyler for years,” Angels scouting director Tim McIlvaine said. “I watched him on Team USA over the summer, and through this year and all the adversity that he’s gone through with his mom, and in the second half, he was as good as anyone in the country. His stuff really ticked up. He finally felt good. …
“We really like his changeup. We think it’s a pitch that whenever he’s in trouble, he can get outs with it. We like his fastball. He’s 6-4, and he’s gonna put on more weight still. There’s a lot you can really dream on.”
The slider, McIlvaine admitted, is a work in progress.
“It’s his third pitch, and it’s developing,” McIlvaine said. “There are days where he has it and it’s really good and he gets a lot of swing-and-miss with it, and there are other days where it’s still coming.”
There have also been some questions about Bremner’s durability after the 21-year-old went back and forth between starting and relieving in his first two seasons at UCSB, when he went 16-5 with a 3.63 ERA in 37 games, striking out 184 and walking 38 in 144 innings.
“We talked to him and realize the weight he lost over the summer – he’ll be able to put that back on,” McIlvaine said. “Once we talked through the whole situation with him, it put all those worries to bed for us.”
There are no questions about Bremner’s competitive fire, which was apparent throughout this season and especially in the second half.
“Funny enough, as [my mom] got worse, that’s when I got stronger on the field,” Bremner said. “I feel like I did a very good job of almost using that kind of negative energy and channeling it into pitch and pitching angry, or pitching for her, pitching for something bigger than myself.
“It was a challenging season, especially to come out of the gate and not perform how I wanted to from the start. Obviously, I wanted to just dominate. But I kept on my path, trusted my stuff, and eventually it just clicked for me.”
MORE DRAFT NEWS
The Angels rounded out the first day of the draft by selecting LSU right-hander Chase Shores in the second round (47th overall), Texas high school left-hander Johnny Slawinski in the third round (79th overall) and Tennessee right-hander Nate Snead with a supplemental pick after the third round (105th overall).
The 6-8, 245-pound Shores threw 47 pitches of 100 mph or more during the NCAA tournament for the College World Series-champion Tigers. He complements a fastball that sits between 94-98 mph with arm-side run with a low-80s slider and an upper-80s changeup with fading action.
The 6-3, 180-pound Slawinski went 9-1 with an 0.37 ERA for Lyndon B. Johnson High, giving up 22 hits, striking out 177 and walking 14 in 74 innings, to win Prep Baseball Texas Player of the Year honors. He has good command of a low-to-mid-90s fastball, upper-70s slider, mid-70s curve and low-80s changeup.
The 6-2, 212-pound Snead pitched in relief at Tennessee, going 4-2 with a 4.53 ERA and six saves in 23 games, striking out 42 and walking 21 in 49⅔ innings. He complements a sinking fastball that sits between 95-97 mph and touches 101 mph with a low-90s cutter and a low-80s curve.
HISTORIC DAY
Saturday marked the first time in major league history that four Japanese-born pitchers started games on the same day.
Angels left-hander Yusei Kikuchi got the win over Arizona, Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani threw three scoreless innings in a win over San Francisco, San Diego right-hander Yu Darvish got a no-decision against Philadelphia, and Washington rookie left-hander Shinnosuke Ogasawara got a no-decision against Milwaukee.
“I was not aware of that,” Kikuchi, speaking through an interpreter, said after giving up three runs and six hits in 5⅔ innings of a 10-5 win. “Hopefully, we can be an inspiration to the kids who look up to us. There’s a lot of kids who play baseball over there and are dreaming of playing in the major leagues, so if we can be an inspiration, great.”