Hey, baseball is pretty fun when the Angels win! After sweeping three games from the A’s in Oakland behind strong pitching, let the record show that the Angels were in first place for at least two days this season. That’s more than a lot of teams can claim. Disregard that Oakland probably isn’t very good. FIRST PLACE!
It’s encouraging that the Angels are banking wins without playing particularly good baseball. Halo position players rank 23rd in baseball in fWAR. Mike Trout has been fine, but hardly superstar caliber, and they’ve gotten diddly squat offensively from four positions: DH, first base, shortstop, and second base. It will become less encouraging if the Angels bats don’t turn it around soon, but for now the wins are welcome.
This weekend the Angels head to Minnesota, a mighty fine place to build on a four-game win streak right now. The Twins are 0-9 and, more discouraging than the record, the kids have been brutal. Miguel Sano owns a 40 wRC+, Byron Buxton sits at 26, and Byung-Ho Park (not a kid age-wise but in MLB experience) has struck out 46.4% of the time. Like the struggling Angels hitters, the Twinkies will turn it around with the bats at some point. But a 0-9 hole for a team with playoff aspirations is difficult to get out of, no matter how early in the season it is.
Game 1: Garrett Richards vs. Tommy Milone
An encouraging start to a hopeful rebound season for Richards. The 3.25 K:BB ratio is the best of his career—it’s early, of course—and the stuff looked good in his first two outings. If he can avoid the big inning and pitch with some more efficiency the tools are there for a dominant start in the Twin Cities. The Twins are the kind of team Richards should mow over if he wants to ascend to ace-dom, but he would be fine with just a win. Not facing a superstar pitcher will help…
Because Tommy Milone is not good. Here’s some fun with early season stats: Milone owns a 7.67 FIP. It’s not great when your FIP sounds like it was assembled by Boeing for intercontinental commercial travel. However, Mommy Tilone is my favorite spoonerism* so he’s got that going for him.
* Does Baseball Twitter even do this anymore or am I way behind the times? Guess I need to Crying MJ myself.
Game 2: Jered Weaver vs. Ricky Nolasco
Sorry, but I don’t buy it. I’m the Fox Mulder of Angel fans: I want to believe. But Weaver needs to string together a few good starts before I can buy him as a viable rotation member. Holding a bad Twins team at bay won’t exactly assuage my fears, but if he gets blown up it’ll cancel out the good start against Texas in my mind.
Sign of my ample ignorance: for like four years I thought Nolasco was left-handed. He just had the name of a left-hander, no? Anyway, he was a tire fire for the Twins last season (6.75 ERA) but his FIP and xFIP were more or less in line with his career. He’s an obvious positive regression candidate and his first start was solid: seven innings, three hits, one run, five strikeouts, and no walks. And they still lost. Poor Twins.
Game 3: Nick Tropeano vs. Kyle Gibson
I assume Nick Tropeano is another couple starts from staying in Anaheim for good. After his great September and shutout performance in five innings in Oakland, it would be silly to ship Tropeano to Salt Lake when Tyler Skaggs or Andrew Heaney return. But who would Trop replace? Richards isn’t going anywhere. Matt Shoemaker probably saved his roster spot with six shutout innings on Wednesday. Hector Santiago, who I’m very skeptical of, has looked really good in his two outings. My guess is Weaver or Shoemaker will pitch themselves out of the rotation eventually—Shoemaker to Salt Lake or Weaver to the DL with a phantom injury—but for now the depth is a great problem to have. Get well Heaney and Skaggs, but take your time.
The Angels have feasted on Kyle Gibson in his five career starts against the Halos. In 26⅓ innings, Gibson has allowed 22 runs and owns a 1.519 WHIP. Sunday would be a nice day for the bats to break out.
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