Whats up with the Angels?

The offseason signing of MVP candidate Josh Hamilton was supposed to propel the Angels to the AL West team to beat, but the Angels’ loss to the Twins last night gives them a sad record of 4-9 on the young season. They are playing worse than the rebuilding Houston Astros, who are expected to be the worst team in the bigs. They are last in the AL West in offensive scoring, and second to last in runs allowed. The “Big 3” aka Trout, Pujols and Hamilton have had a very average start, and to make matters worse Vernon Wells is actually playing pretty well in pinstripes.

 

But it is still early, the Halos have 134 games to figure it out. Assuming  that their problems can be “figured out,” and that these last 13 games have been a simple slump rather than an exposition of glaring weaknesses. However, my 10^th grade history teacher told me that assuming makes and ass out of u and me, and the numbers say there is real cause for concern in Orange County.

Their offense will come around, Trout may not hit .330 this year but he is too good to keep batting .260 the whole year and once he gets going that will give Pujols and Hamilton prime RBI opportunities, assuming (there it is again) Josh Hamilton RElearns for the millionth time how to lay off a curveball in the dirt. They need to get Aybar back to solidify two spot, because Bourjus is too inconsistent to be at the top of the lineup. I think Howie Kendrick would benefit the most from hitting in front of Pujols but Scioscia seems to think Hamilton needs protection from protecting Pujols. Anyways, their offense is slumping, but when all of those guys are on, it may be the best one through nine in the game.

But, as the great Paul Bear Bryant said, “Offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships,” more specifically pitching wins championships, and the Angels’ staff needs Walt Disney’s magic to come to life if they are going to make the playoffs.

Weaver’s freak injury made their starting pitching really, really thin. CJ Wilson needs to step up and be an ace while Weaver heals, but lack of control has led to three average starts (1-0 4.00 ERA 1.5 WHIP). After Wilson, their starting pitching drops off a cliff, Joe Blanton is the new number 2 and he just received his third consecutive loss last night and is averaging 8.59 earned runs every nine innings. Tommy Hanson, and Jason Vargas sum up their rotation, and they have combined for 1-quality start.

If a team’s starting pitching is struggling, the bullpen has to find a way to pick them up, and that’s nowhere close to happening. Ernesto Frieri has had a good start as the closer, only giving up one run in five innings, but he has also walked three in that span which would be detrimental if he didn’t have ten strikeouts on top of that. Mark Lowe and Kevin Jepsen are tied for second on the team in appearances, and they both only have one pitch that they can kind of throw for a strike, and when they do, it has been getting raked. Lowe has an ERA of 12 and Jepsen has given up an average of 9 earned runs.

These numbers are awful, and they should get better over the next 134 games, but how much better? Can they improve enough to compete with the A’s who have scored 30 more runs and allowed 20 less runs to date? Or How bout the Rangers, who are only allowing an average of 3 total runs per game without their opening day starter? It doesn’t look good for the Halos, they have very glaring weaknesses in their pitching staff, so it may be early, but Angel fan definitely have grounds to ‘freak out”

-Blake Dale Lepire