When writing about the volatility of early-season narratives after the sweep in Oakland, I really didn’t expect the Angels’ story to then re-shift so abruptly by the end of the week. I suppose that’s on me for not taking my own message to heart.
The Angels getting swept by the Cubs in the opening series hurt, but it at least had the positive effect of quickly grounding expectations after a strong and mostly injury-free spring. Getting swept by the Twins hurts way more and is completely unredeemable.
The losses might have been easier to stomach had Minnesota’s projected-to-be-awesome offense absolutely unloaded on the Halos, but that didn’t happen. Instead, the Angels jumped out to a lead in each contest only to have the offense tap out early and ultimately let the bullpen give the game away in the late innings. Just days after it looked like their clutch-hitting troubles might be behind them, the Angels went 4-for-14 with runners in scoring position, with noted RBI men Yunel Escobar, Geovany Soto, and Cliff Pennington collecting the four hits. Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, and C.J. Cron were 0-for-6 in RBI situations in the series and are now a combined 5-for-33 with RISP on the year. Kind of makes scoring runs difficult.
Boxscore Breakdowns
Game 1: Twins 5, Angels 4
Game 2: Twins 6, Angels 4
Game 3: Twins 3, Angels 2 (F/12)
Series Takeaways
When Mike Trout Is Human, The Angels Lose
Most teams can get by when one of its stars is underperforming. Unfortunately, the Angels aren’t most teams. When Mike Trout isn’t performing at his typical superhuman level, the Angels are simply no longer a good team—Trout’s display of mortality is equal to any other club losing at least two All-Star players. Had Arte Moreno opted to build a stronger roster around Trout, his .233/.333/.372 line and 0-for-10 performance with RISP so far might not have been quite the death knell it’s become. But with C.J. Cron and his .325 OPS as a second line of defense, well… it’s easy to figure out where the blame lies.
I fully expect Trout to improve on his numbers in short order, but it was foolish for the Angels to build their roster on the idea that he would be a 10-win player in perpetuity. Even with a slight dip in performance from Trout this year—say, six wins—the Angels will probably be on the outside looking in.
Kole Calhoun Needs To Move Up In The Lineup
It is abundantly clear that Yunel Escobar and Kole Calhoun are the Angels’ two best hitters at the moment. But while Escobar enjoys four or five plate appearances a day in the leadoff spot, Calhoun has been at times lucky to get four. It’s nice that Mike Scioscia finally got around to putting Calhoun ahead of C.J. “Zero RBI” Cron in the lineup, but I’d posit that he hasn’t moved him up far enough. Hitting Daniel Nava and Craig Gentry in the No. 2 spot was a great moment of spring optimism, but with Nava out until May, Gentry hitting like 2015 wasn’t a fluke, and Rafael Ortega still wet behind the ears, it makes no sense to continue with that plan.
In a perfect world Mike Trout would bat second, but with Scioscia set on hitting him third the only other logical option is Calhoun. I don’t even want to imagine how many more runs the Angels would have if they’d started the year with an Escobar-Calhoun-Trout-Pujols configuration. Just way too depressing. It’s never too late to start doing the right thing, though.
Mike Morin Is Even More Broken Somehow?
Everything about Mike Morin‘s 2015 season screamed positive regression. He had one of the worst strand rates in MLB history, his BABIP was through the roof, and his FIP was almost four full runs better than his ERA. So far, though, things have only gotten worse. With three hits and a run allowed in two appearances over the weekend, Morin owns a 5.79 ERA through seven appearances this season. His strand rate has returned to normal (79%), but his BABIP (.412) and HR rate (14.3%) have continued to go in the wrong direction.
History dictates that those numbers will eventually settle back to normal, but with his ground-ball rate (16.7%) disturbingly low so far this season—his career rate was ~41 percent— it may be that in the process of making adjustments to counteract his 2015 woes Morin moved too far away from what made him successful in 2014. Let’s hope that’s not the case.
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