ANAHEIM — Gotta give it to the Angels; they’re on another level.
Not talking an exceptionally high level; not the top-shelf stuff.
Just very much on their own plane, dancing to their own beat, repeating their familiar one-step-forward, two-steps-back shuffle into the All-Star Break.
On Sunday, that meant they punctuated their surprisingly competent two-games-under-.500 first half with an exclamatory thud.
As the team on the field was losing 5-1 to the Arizona Diamondbacks to drop to 47-49, the team in the front office was using its No. 2 overall pick in the 2025 MLB Draft on a player that experts at MLB.com listed as the 18th best available prospect.
And why?
Angels scouting director Tim McIlvaine explained, they shocked even UC Santa Barbara right-hander Tyler Bremner with the pick because, well, they really, really like him.
They like his 6-foot-2 frame, his fastball, his changeup and, McIlvaine said, “you just get a feeling sometimes with a guy, that just feels right.”
They really, really like him just a smidge more than the other nine or so guys they were considering taking, he said.
“We talked about it right up until the bell, really,” McIlvaine said. “It’s a talented group this year, it really is. Probably 10 guys that we were really exhausted, going through the whole process.”
What about Bremner’s work-in-progress slider? Yep, “it’s developing,” McIlvaine said.
And those questions about his durability? “We talked to him, realized the weight he lost over the summer, he’ll be able to put that back on,” McIlvaine said.
So Bremner should come at a bargain, contract-wise, one would think? Was that the appeal? “No, I wouldn’t say that… we’re still gonna figure it all out,” McIlvaine said.
What about Bremner’s collegiate record – 5-4 in 14 starts this past season? That only made the Angels like him more! “So many guys that we take, they’ve never failed, you know?” McIlvaine said. “And then you get them in pro ball and they’re matching all their peers and it’s harder all of a sudden and some guys don’t know how to deal with it.”
Please keep in mind that it had to have been a difficult season for Bremner, whose mother, Jen Bremner, was fighting cancer, continuing to come to Gauchos games until she couldn’t anymore.
On Instagram, Bremner memorialized his mom with a heartfelt post on June 12 that read, in part: “Saying goodbye to you has been the hardest thing I have had to go through in my life. Why did this evil disease have to come into the life of such a pure hearted soul.”
On a Zoom videoconference with reporters Sunday, he said that he knows “she’s out there watching, and in a weird way, I went to the Angels. It’s weird how life works.”
To his new employers, Bremner said: “You got a warrior here, you got the most competitive guy in the draft, and I can’t wait to start.”
There’s no reason to doubt the 21-year-old native San Diegan’s fight or compete, but it’s usually hard not to doubt the Angels’ thought process.
And now they’ve set up Bremner to have to do some real prove-it pitching.
The No. 2 pick in any draft is supposed to set out to prove people right, not to prove them wrong – unless, I guess, a player is insulted he didn’t go No. 1 overall.
In the Angels’ case, their No. 2 overall pick would not have been miffed even if he hadn’t gone in the top 10.
But now he’s been put in the position of having to show the world that his new team isn’t wrong about him, that the Angels haven’t mismanaged this pick – the highest since they selected Darin Erstad No. 1 overall in 1995.
He’ll have to prove to his own team’s fans that the Angels haven’t minimized this asset.
Taking aside how much the most highly touted available prospects would have bolstered the Angels’ famously flimsy farm system, hearing Ethan Holliday’s name, or Kade Anderson or Seth Hernandez’s would have fired up those fans who want badly to have hope in a team that hasn’t made the playoffs in 11 seasons.
Fans who had been buoyed by the first half of the season, which had given them that, a bit.
The peaks and valleys almost leveled out at .500, and an average ol’ team, record-wise, was worth watching for the upside of its young core.
That was enough to buy the Angels some time with their fans, but you can only buy so much when you’re skating on thin ice.