Meet Anel de los Santos

Anel de los Santos catching for Orem in July 2007.

The 2008 Baseball America Top 10 Angels Prospects Report released today has apparently perplexed some people. Across fan boards, I see posts along the general line of:

“Anel who?!”

Anel de los Santos, ranked #10, may be a stranger to them but he’s no stranger to FutureAngels.com readers.

I wrote about Anel here in the FutureAngels.com Blog last July when I visited the Orem Owlz. Two weeks later, I was at rookie league camp in Tempe and interviewed Tom Gregorio, the Angels’ roving catching instructor. We talked about the catching prospects in the system, including Anel. Click Here to listen to the interview. (Windows Media Player required.) We talk about Anel at the ten-minute point of the interview.

In late September, I returned to Tempe for fall instructional league. As luck had it, my camcorder was set up behind home plate and recorded Anel blocking the plate on an attempted double steal. Click Here to watch the video clip. (Windows Media Player and a broadband Internet connection required.) If you watch the video clip, the lady complaining the runner was safe was a Brewers fan. I played back the tape frame-by-frame; Anel blocked the plate with his ankle guard so the runner’s leg bounced off and never reached the plate. One of the Angels coaches asked me to play back the tape and commented afterwards that I should post it on FutureAngels.com as it was a "textbook" example of how to handle that play.

So I had to laugh today when “Anel who?!” showed up all over the fan sites. Anel is no secret to those who are FutureAngels.com regulars.