Angels Reliever Gets Big Strikeouts In Instructional League

Like every team in baseball, the Los Angeles Angels are always looking for big arms in the bullpen, and they definitely have one in reliever Chase Shores, who was part of a scouting report done from the instructional league by Jason Pennini of Baseball America. 

Start with the size factor. At 6’8” and 245 pounds, Shores is huge. The Angels selected him in the second round out of LSU, where he somehow managed to not wind up playing linebacker or tight end. 

Despite those dimensions, Pennini described Shores as “high-waisted and long-limbed,” but there’s no doubt he’s coming downhill at you when Shores takes to the mound.  

Not surprisingly, the appeal is about velocity. Shores creates it with a combination of strength and torque, per the scout, and his simple delivery helps him avoid some of the mechanical issues pitchers this big tend to create. He uses a short leg life, “drifts” down the mound, and at some point brute strength takes over. 

There are still complications, though, because it’s tough to keep everything together, aligned and in rhythm when you’re that size. Strike throwing is a problem for the reliever, which isn’t exactly surprising, but there’s also movement to go with the velocity.  

That movement is created in part by his delivery, as Shores works from a low three-quarters slot bordering on sidearm. That creates tailing life on his fastball, which is coming in at 95-97 mph. There is contrast to go with it, though, as Shores also offers an 85-88 mph slider and a changeup athat clocks in at 87-89 mph. 

The reliever can also elevate his fastball with two strikes for contrast. That increases his ability to get swinging strikeouts with all three pitches, as he showed in the outing Pennini covered. He came away impressed, although the scout provided no details on Shores' next step in the Halos system. 

Like most teams, the Angels are at least semi-obsessed with velocity, but it cost them big this year. Ben Joyce was supposed to be their closer, but he was coming off arm surgery and it took him forever to get back in the lineup. 

When he did Joyce often couldn’t throw strikes, and the result was nearly as many blown saves as saves. The Angels had the lowest number of saves among their lead closers in baseball, so there will be an opportunity for pitchers like Shores to contribute if he can continue to develop and make progress going forward after instructional league shuts down.