Jo Adell

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — My sense of the Louisville baseball scene is the Cincinnati Reds are the big-league team with the largest following, by a small margin over the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Cubs, Yankees, Red Sox and Braves are also in the discussion. Pee Wee Reese and Will Smith earn love for the Dodgers. That essentially is the list.

To those seven teams, it’s time to add another — the Los Angeles Angels. Mike Trout’s team is flashing a Louisville flavor.

Former University of Louisville starting pitcher Reid Detmers joined the rotation Sunday and figures to finish the season in Anaheim. He should make his second big-league start against the Dodgers this weekend.

Tuesday night in Texas, former Ballard High School phenom Jo Adell returned to the Angels’ outfield from AAA Salt Lake City and looked like the Top 10 prospect scouts promised.

Angels’ manager Joe Maddon stuck Adell in the No. 6 spot in the batting order and Adell, 22, flashed nearly all of his considerable tools.

A walk.

A double.

A single.

Another double.

A stolen base.

Three runs batted in.

“I really liked the base-running and the command of the strike zone,” Angels manager Joe Maddon told MLB.com after the game. “Those are the two things that are going to make him a really good Major League player, understanding the nuances of the game.”

Adell agreed. The doubles made the post-game highlight package. But the at-bat that pleased Adell most was his first one, the walk.

Adell dropped behind in the count one ball, two strikes.

Hitting with two strikes was a challenge for Adell last season during his 132 plate appearances as a rookie. His strikeout rate of nearly 42 percent was a primary reason the Angels sent him back to their AAA affiliate in Salt Lake City for 2021.

Despite his power, his speed and his ability to play the outfield, Adell will not be able to stay in a major-league lineup every day striking out more than 4 times for every 10 plate appearances.

Tuesday night in Arlington Texas, he battled through that 1-2 count. He fouled off the fourth pitch from Ranges’ right hander Jordan Lyles and then took three consecutive balls.

“That was my best at-bat of the day, for sure,” Adell told MLB.com. “Some of these pitches, I didn’t see very often throughout the minor leagues until I got into Triple-A baseball.

“There were some sinkers, some different pitches that I hadn’t seen quite yet. I think I probably would’ve swung at a couple of sliders or cutters early in the count.”

From there, Adell had a night to celebrate. In the third inning, he doubled on an 0-1 pitch to drive in two runs.

He grounded out to third in the sixth. He singled to left field to load the bases in the seventh. In the ninth, on another 1-2 pitch, he doubled to left and later scored.

For a guy who had trouble getting to Texas on Monday because of flight issues, Adell went 3 for 4 with 3 RBIs and a walk as the Angels won, 11-3.

In 38 games last season, Adell did not have any 3-hit games.

Adell also did not strike out Tuesday. In 2020 during games when he had at least 4 plate appearances, Adell had only 4 games without a strikeout.

“The more you play, the more you start to figure out where your success lies within the game,” Adell said told MLB.com.

“For me, over these 70 or so games in Salt Lake, along with some Spring games, I started to figure out how I’m going to be successful in certain situations, and what pitches I actually can handle very well versus the ones that I think I can hit very well.”

With Trout (currently injured), Shohei Ohtani, Anthony Rendon (also injured) and Detmers, Adell figures to be a critical piece of the Angels' push to overtake the Houston Astros and Oakland A’s next season.

Instead of grumbling about his return to AAA in April, Adell reported to Salt Lake City and produced. His 23 home runs ranked second among all players in AAA baseball and his 69 RBIs ranked first at that level. His talent is legit.

Now it’s time for him to prove it at the level the Angels expected when Los Angeles drafted Adell with the 10th pick of the first round in 2017.

“In a season as short as last year, the toughest part is jumping into that groove,” Adell said. “There’s really no time to struggle when you’re trying to put up the season that you want.

“With spring training and the way it was set up, not having fans, everything that came into play was kind of awkward, kind of weird. But I wouldn’t take that back.

“A couple of times, people have asked, 'If you could, [would you] do the year over again?' No. Adversity made me who I am.”

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