The heart of the Angels’ offensive struggles

As we all know far too well right now, the Angels pretty much stink. The only thing more surprising than the mere fact that they are so bad is the manner in which they have managed to be so disappointing. Yes, the pitching hasn't been very good, but a lot of people saw that coming. What people didn't predict was that their offense would be so underwhelming.

Last year, the Halos had one of the top offenses in all of baseball. All they really changed was replacing Torii Hunter with Josh Hamilton. Even with a potential decline from Hamilton, the thought was that the lineup should still be pretty good. That is how it should have played out, especially with Howie Kendrick and Peter Bourjos having career years at the plate. The problem is that they have had two very disappointing players in their lineup. Right smack dab in the middle of the lineup, to be precise.

Teams can handle disappointing players, but what they can't handle is having underachieving hitters occupying premium run production slots in the order. There is no more stark example of that than what Albert Pujols has done, or rather failed to do, batting third for the Halos.

Here is the production the Angels are getting from their three-hole hitters (almost entirely Pujols) in 2013, right up until Scioscia shook up the lineup over the weekend:

As you can see, the Angels are next-to-last in runs created in all of baseball. In terms of OPS+, they are only slightly better, checking in at 28th. Whether you are old school or new school, getting that pathetic return from one of the most important spots in the lineup is incredibly difficult to overcome. If you look at the other teams around the Halos, many of them are amongst the worst offenses in the league. There are some decent offenses like Texas and Tampa there too though, so it apparently isn't a complete death sentence.

Where the real trouble comes to play for the Angels is that they have not one, but two black holes in the heart of the order. Here is where their production ranks out of the cleanup spot:

This is a slot that has been split between Josh Hamilton and Mark Trumbo this year. Trumbo is having a very good season, but as you can see by their 25th ranking in RC and  OPS+, Hamilton dug a pretty deep whole for Trumbo to dig his way out of. That swap of Trumbo and Hamilton at the four and five slots might've helped a little, but clearly it didn't do much.

Looking at those numbers, it is a miracle that the Angels have even scored as many runs as they have. Having a premier tablesetter definitely helps, but the Halos just aren't setting their lineup in a way to fully take advantage of the greatness that is Mike Trout. That is why it is almost comical to see so much hand-wringing over whether or not Trout should bat leadoff or second. With Pujols and Hamilton batting directly behind him, be they batting second, third, fourth or fifth, that is like worrying about whether or not you have top of the line tires on your Dodge Dart.

Ideally, Scioscia could rectify the situation by moving Pujols and Hamilton down in the order until they straighten themselves out, but given that Sosh's recent attempt at a fix involved moving Hamilton to second in the order, that probably is never going to happen. And until Scioscia wises up or the two supposed sluggers start playing like we expected, expect the Halos offense to continue to sputter.