Zach Neto was called up to be the Angels’ everyday SS. What does he bring to the table, and how on Earth did he get called up so quickly?!
- Born: January 31, 2001
- B/T: Right/Right
- 6’0″, 185-lbs
- Drafted by the Los Angeles Angels in the 2022 MLB June Amateur Draft from Campbell University (Buies Creek, NC)
The Numbers
His raw numbers are listed above courtesy of baseball-reference.com. Let’s aggregate by year then focus on the important numbers for minor leaguers:
That’s it, just over 200 plate appearances since he was drafted last year. He shows immediate power and good OBP and extremely impressive bat control with his strikeouts and walks being equal.
OK, that was just 31 plate appearances, so what did his AA time tell us about 2022? Still pretty good power, though just a 25.7% hard hit rate, so it wasn’t THAT great. Really got on base though, and still didn’t strike out too much. More walks would have been nice.
So in 2023 they put him back in AA and after a couple of weeks decide that’s just too cruel to Double-A pitchers. He mashed the ball, got on base more than every other trip to the plate, stole bases immediately, still didn’t strike out too much.
Monthly Splits
He destroyed April, and only spared May because May hasn’t been born yet.
OK, OK, you want splits? I’ll give you splits by wrapping in last season along with April:
Why did I start with August? Because he was only drafted last summer. He played July 30 and 31st and then it was August.
Yeah, he was good, then he was great, then he was Babe Ruth.
Handedness K% and BB%
A+ (vs RH): 19%K and 14%BB. (vs LH): 0%K and 10%BB.
AA (vs RH): 22%K and 6%BB. (vs LH): 16%K and 4%BB.
He was more productive against lefties in AA, but he was an All-Star against righties, so, uh, yeah, he’s fine.
The Scouts
- Rotowire: #51 on their Top 400
- Fantrax: #83 on their Top 400
- RotoProspects: #51 on Top 500
Warnings
In his first game in the majors, Statcast says he had an average Exit Velocity of 85.1 with a Max Velocity of 98.4. The average is basically what he did last year in the majors, and is fine.. But he’s just 22, so this can grow, and if we want to see more of a foundation under his good power numbers, this would be nice to see.
Otherwise, he’s the real deal.
Conclusion
Speed, power, on-base ability, bat control, defense. What else you want, Sparky?
He’s going to be in the Angels’ infield for the next decade.