The Angels have until tomorrow morning to make their ALDS roster decisions. That should be a lot easier to do now that they know who they are facing and finally gotten some clarity on the health statuses of Matt Shoemaker and Josh Hamilton, respectively. With all that in mind, here’s a quick rundown of the Angels and the roster decisions they have to make before the ALDS against the Royals begins.
We know that the Angels are planning on carrying 13 hitters and 12 pitchers. Well, at least 12 pitchers. There is some talk that they might carry more, but that’s just plain crazy. Either way, most of the roster spots are already spoken for:
POSITION PLAYERS (11): Kole Calhoun, Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, Howie Kendrick, Erick Aybar, David Freese, Josh Hamilton (if healthy), Chris Iannetta, Hank Conger, Gordon Beckham, Collin Cowgill
PITCHERS (11): Jered Weaver, C.J. Wilson, Matt Shoemaker (if healthy), Hector Santiago, Cory Rasmus, Huston Street, Joe Smith, Kevin Jepsen, Jason Grilli, Fernando Salas, Mike Morin
That leaves two bench spots and one spot in the bullpen. Let’s start with the bench spots.
One of the two will be going to a left-handed batter with Scioscia picking between Efren Navarro and Brennan Boesch. In theory, Boesch is the better hitter, but his performance in the Majors this year begs to differ. Efren Navarro, despite his lack of experience, is a superior outfielder who also can play first base, though there likely won’t be much of a call for that. Navarro is a solid contact hitter, which makes him a good pinch-hitting option, but doesn’t have nearly the power Boesch does. The big unknown though is whether or not this slot is going to be used as part of a left field platoon or DH platoon.
If Hamilton can play the field, Boesch is the more likely choice because of his theoretically better bat. But if there is any question about Josh handling left, then they have to go with Navarro as Boesch in the outfield is not a thing that should happen.
As for the next bench spot and the right-handed part of the platoon, the Angels very much want this spot to go to C.J. Cron. He really struggled in September, but his massive power is too hard to pass up. The problem is that if Hamilton can’t play the field, he has to DH, which would relegate Cron to pinch-hitting duty. That’s probably still worth it for the Angels, but it means that Collin Cowgill will be starting instead of on the bench, so the Halos might have to bump Cron for another outfielder. That could mean carrying both Navarro and Boesch. It could mean opting for Grant Green as he has a solid bat and defensive versatility, though that seems highly unlikely considering his sparse playing time in the final month. It could be the excuse they need to carry Tony Campana as a pinch-running specialist, but that would really limit their pinch-hitting options and expose their depth if Hamilton succumbs to injury again.
If the team is scared off by Cron’s slump overall, one outside the box option for them would be to carry John McDonald as a reserve infielder. This would allow them to put Gordon Beckham’s hot bat and superior glove at third base and move David Freese to DH full-time. That actually makes a lot of sense as Freese would be the most likely to get pinch-run for and having him at DH makes that easier to do without having to worry about infield depth. This only works if Hamilton can play the field though.
My bet is that they operate under the assumption that Hamilton can play the field and give one bench spot to Cron, but then hedge on their assumption and carry Navarro over Boesch, just in case Hamilton finds out that his body can’t handle both the field and hitting.
In the bullpen, the Angels have three choices: Vinnie Pestano, Joe Thatcher and Wade LeBlanc. If the choice is just sheer talent, then Pestano is the easy choice. He’s been electric since the Angels acquired him, striking out over 12 batters per nine innings. The Royals don’t strike out as much as other teams, but they aren’t immune to whiffing. More importantly though, Pestano has been death on right-handed hitters allowing just a .220 wOBA. It is a small sample size, but in line with his .234 career wOBA against righties. That makes him a potent weapon against the middle of the KC order which features righties Lorenzo Cain, Sal Perez and Billy Butler.
The only reason not to carry Pestano is if the Angels decide they just can’t live without a left-handed reliever. Otherwise, Joe Thatcher’s miserable September would obviously keep him off the roster. It seems doubtful though that Scioscia will decide he needs a lefty because that just isn’t a real issue with KC. Two of their best hitters, Alex Gordon and Nori Aoki, are left-handed, but both of them have career splits that show they aren’t really affected by southpaws. They also have Mike Moustakas, who can’t touch lefties, but he can barely touch righties either. That’s a guy you actually want to keep in the game, not give Yost an excuse to pinch-hit for. That really just leaves Eric Hosmer. He doesn’t have big platoon splits either, but there is definitely a gap. Is getting one guy out really worth carrying Thatcher? I say no.
The final option is to carry LeBlanc, who pitched great in the last two weeks. He is also left-handed, but historically he has actually been worse against left-handed batters, so he can’t really be used as a LOOGY. He can be used as a long man, however. He’s essentially a disaster contingency plan, something that is unfortunately necessary with C.J. Wilson and Hector Santiago involved. Still, the Halos already have Cory Rasmus, so that should be enough length for a five-game series.
As a result, the easy answer here is Pestano. He’s just pitching too well to leave him off. If they really were going to leave him off, they should drop him in favor of another bench player, like Campana. But that isn’t going to happen, so add Pestano to the roster. If the Angels believe they need a LOOGY, they can use Santiago in Game 1 or Game 2 (or every game if they go with a three-man rotation), which is really the best of both worlds for them because he’s probably their best left-handed reliever.
These are all just moves around the margins, so they won’t necessarily make or break the Halos, but when you are in a short series, sometimes those marginal moves can be all the difference.
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