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Answering the key questions of Angels spring training

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TEMPE, Ariz. — The Angels got out of Arizona on Friday after a successful spring, which means they didn’t suffer any significant injuries.

The most important player who came into camp with an injury – Zach Neto – represented the biggest of the five key questions we identified for the Angels at the start of spring training.

Now that the Angels have left Arizona for three final games against the Dodgers, starting on Sunday, it’s a good time to revisit those questions.

How is Zach Neto?

Neto had shoulder surgery in November, and the Angels provided only a vague timeline that indicated he might or might not be ready for Opening Day.

Now, we know he won’t be ready, but Neto is making enough progress that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

As camp ended, Neto was hitting and throwing every day, and he reported that he was feeling “great.”

There are two big tests remaining. Neto has been throwing at a distance of 120 feet, making standard throws from the shortstop position to first, but he needs to expand that to making throws from the hole and relay throws from the outfield.

Also, Neto needs to see some live pitching. In a normal spring training, a player would get at least around 40 plate appearances. The Angels could accomplish some of that by having Neto face Angels minor league pitchers in Arizona, but he’ll also need to play some real games in the minors.

It’s reasonable to expect him back sometime starting in mid-April.

What is the plan for Mike Trout?

At the start of camp we still didn’t know if the Angels planned to keep Trout in center field, since they didn’t acquire another center fielder over the winter.

On the first day of full-squad workouts, Trout said he and the team agreed that he would move to right. That meant that Jo Adell and Mickey Moniak would vie for playing time in center.

Trout has answered the first part of that question by showing that he’s going to have no trouble with right field. He’s made several nice catches and this week he even threw out a runner at the plate.

“Right field’s been great,” Trout said. “I love it.”

As for the Adell-Moniak question, Adell recovered from a shaky defensive start to show improvement, so it looks like he can handle the position. Moniak has already proven he can play center in the majors. The question is which one will hit more. Neither had a great spring, so this question is likely to linger into the season.

How does Reid Detmers look?

Detmers is arguably the most talented starting pitcher in the organization, but he’s never figured out how to be consistently successful in the majors. He was so bad last year that he was shipped to Triple-A, and this spring he came into camp needing to out-pitch a handful of candidates – most notably Jack Kochanowicz – to break camp in the rotation.

Detmers has been better. He had a 2.79 ERA in 19⅓ innings, with 17 strikeouts and four walks, making a positive impression on Manager Ron Washington.

“He’s on a mission,” Washington said. “You can see it. I don’t think he want to experience ever again what he experienced last year. And you could see the way he’s going about his business and his aggressiveness on the mound since he’s been down here, the use of his pitches. You can see that he’s on a mission.”

Where that mission ends up will be revealed sometime in the next few days. Kochanowicz also pitched well in Arizona – a 2.92 ERA in 12⅓ Cactus League innings plus 5⅔ scoreless innings in a minor-league game – and the Angels scheduled him to start in the final game of the Freeway Series, which is a pretty strong indication that he’s going to be the fifth starter. Detmers still might end up either in the bullpen or Triple-A.

Will Year 2 under Manager Ron Washington yield better fundamentals?

Last spring Washington was not shy about saying the Angels needed plenty of work to get to a fundamental level that he deemed to be sufficient. Early in the season, they still made plenty of mistakes, particularly with their baserunning.

This year, Washington said it’s been better, but not yet what he wants. In the last week of spring training Washington was critical of some bunt defenses and relays.

“They are (better), but thing is, we’re still having some problems transferring them to the game,” Washington said. “And that takes time, but we have to have a foundation, and the foundation is the fundamentals. I’ve been very pleased with how we’ve been going about it in practice. It’s starting to come together in the game.”

How much will the new facilities help?

The Angels got their first look at the newly renovated player development center, a project that cost more than $20 million and more than doubled the size of the facility.

Aside from plenty of more comfortable amenities – a nicer clubhouse, a better kitchen, a bigger weight room – the Angels used pitching and hitting labs that were loaded with state of the art technology.

Although players said they appreciated the new tech, we still won’t know if it made a difference until we see the results in games, or how well the minor leaguers develop.

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