Should he be a major-leaguer? Can he be a regular?

I thought last season that Angle would be an excellent fourth or fifth outfielder and had a chance to be a regular outfielder, like Brett Gardner. While I underrated Gardner in that analysis — Gardner was and is a better player than Angle — I still think Angle is a major-league player.

First, the positives. Angle is an outstanding defensive center fielder, perhaps not quite as spectacular as Torii Hunter or as physical as Andruw Jones, but outstanding nevertheless. He has plus-plus speed, a knack for judging fly balls and running good routes. He also has an above-average throwing arm that plays better because he’s very accurate. In fact, although some of my colleagues might think it impossible, Angle may be an overall better center fielder than Denard Span, who was certainly the most spectacular center fielder I’ve seen in my six seasons of datacasting and had always been considered the best. Offensively, Angle has good strike-zone judgement and is an outstanding base-stealer (minor league career totals — 169 stolen bases in 205 attempts.)

Also, his performance last year told me a lot about Angle’s makeup. He got off to a terrible start. While many AAA players who get off to terrible starts end up with truly terrible years, Angle rebounded to have a solid season not far out of line with his career performance. He didn’t press, nor try to do too much, nor let his offensive struggles affect his defense.

The negative, and it’s a big negative, is that Angle doesn’t hit for any power at all — a career (slugging percentage – batting average) of .066 (Brett Gardner’s minor-league value was .094). Generally, the concern with a player with so little power is that he’s a weakling and pitchers will throw strikes, knowing he can’t hurt him. And, in general, the concern is valid. I think Angle may be an exception. He has a flat swing, so he does hit the ball hard but without much loft. Angle does draw an adequate number of walks, so he’s not a Joey Gathright against whom pitchers groove pitches.

Angle’s not going to be a superstar. On the right team — a team with an above-average offense but a below-average defense on which Angle could hit ninth (with the DH) or eighth (without the DH) — I’d be happy to plug Angle into center field.

So why did the Orioles expose Angle to waivers, where the Dodgers claimed him?

I’m not going to discuss the merits of signing Luis Ayala here, nor am I going to lambaste the Orioles front office. I think the Orioles exposed Angle for several reasons. First, the Orioles are the wrong team for Angle. They have an outstanding defensive center fielder in Adam Jones. While their offense is better than it was when Cesar Izturis and Josh Bell occupied the ninth and eighth spots, it’s still not a good offense. But more importantly, the Orioles are still — again? — in the initial phases of their development. As I see it, when they signed Ayala, the Orioles had to choose between Angle and Jai Miller for the roster spot. While I think Angle is better than Miller, I also think that Miller has a much better chance of becoming a very good player (mainly because Angle doesn’t have any chance of developing much beyond the adequate-regular class.) So, since the Orioles are so far away from being good, it might make sense to hope that Miller lives up to his potential and allow Angle to go elsewhere. As I said, I would have kept Angle, but I can see the case for keeping Miller.