The Struggles of the Angels

            I love my Astros.  I wear my jerseys about 2-3 times a week showing my pride for such a bad team and yes I do admit we are bad.  But I’m also an Anaheim Angels fan; I love my Angles since I was a kid growing up watching them and going to games.  I remember when they were the California Angels with Chili Davis, Tim Salmon and Jimmy Edmonds.  So looking at the team now all I can say is what is happening to this team?  A team that is as bad as the Astros and Marlins at this point lets take a look at the struggles of the Angels.

            First lets take a look at the teams basic stats; a season Batting Average of .257 putting them middle of the pack in the league having the 10^th best average.  The teams OBP is .316, 20^th overall and a SLG of .409 which puts them 13^th overall.  In terms of AVG and SLG alone they’re middle of the road, even OPS is ok at .724 13^th overall.  What is bad is that OBP and here’s why, a BB% of 8%, this as a team with Pujols, Trout, Hamilton and Howie Kendrick that’s bad.  The K% isn’t that terrible at 20% defiantly could be better and it’s low enough that a team that was walking could overcome this.  As an example Oakland A’s have a BB% of 12% is the best in the majors so far and a K% of 21%.  This seems like minor difference but that 4% that the A’s walk more means that’s a lot more runners on base; the A’s OBP is .340.

            There’s to the Angles failings then just not getting on base, in fact it’s keeping them off the bases.  They own the 3^rd highest Errors total with 27 errors, that’s just bad.  Their Fielding Percentage is currently 4^th worst at .979 (right above the last team I did a overview of, the Nationals), which shows that the team that was touted with such a good defense and this is what they get so far.  I honestly think they would do better and will do better here over time; this is the easiest thing to overcome for the Angels in my opinion.

            The worst problem for the Angles is the pitching, all the pitching.  The pitching was a weak area in the beginning of the season but with the offense as potent as it was supposed to be we figured that this would have been balanced out.  But with the loose of their ace, Jared Weaver, the pitching has just been leaderless with no one really taking the reins.  The bullpen is in worse shape then the starting rotation but this isn’t really saying too much with a team ERA of 4.68 with ranks 28^th overall and a BAA is currently ranked 26^th at .263.  These are killing the team and there’s no relief in sight so far.  It doesn’t help that the team leads the majors in BB’s allowed and has a team OBP of .342 which is the 2^nd worst in the majors.  In the end the Angels need help badly here and getting Weaver back isn’t nearly enough, they need to trade for a young arm that can fit into that 2^nd pitcher slot.  That or they really need the have guys like CJ Wilson or Tommy Hanson to step up and pitch like the guys were or can be.

            I want to highlight 1 player in particular as a problem for the team and it’s a guy that’s not going anywhere anytime soon, Josh Hamilton.  With a K% of 28% he is easily one of the most define reasons the team is struggling with the Strikeouts.  His string rate in the zone this year is at 80% and outside the zone is currently at 43%, the scary thing about this is the fact that its down from his career.  This needs to change and it wont is the major problem.  All is not doom and gloom in the land of the Angels, one person that I’ll mention as a good sign for the team is Mark Trumbo.  An increased BB% rate from his career rate with a decreased swing rate outside the zone is a sign that he’s starting the see the ball better.  The one thing that is worrisome is the increased FB/HR rate, which is almost 10% higher than his career line of 19% to 27%.  That might be unsustainable.  Another thing to look at is the BABIP is higher than his career which means that he is getting lucky but a good sign is the BABIP has been higher 2 years now so this could be a trend.

            All in all the team is bad and if its not changed fast they’re going to fight the Marlins and the Astros for the worst team in the majors.  It’s not something I want to say but I can see the team pulling it together and start turning things around.  There are signs that things are starting to right themselves from time to time but if the pitching doesn’t get better there’s no chance they even get a wild card spot.  That’s what the stats tell me.