If this weekend made one thing abundantly clear, it’s that no team in baseball was more in need of a day off than the Angels. The club went into the weekend having played 14 days in a row and in 23 of the last 24 overall. Every other AL team but the Twins had at least two days rest in that span, and Minnesota’s day off mercifully came midway through their stretch. The only contending team with a second-half slog on par with the Angels’ is the Washington Nationals, whose 20 games in 20 days starting July 28, over which they went 6–14, led to every manner of “Why are the Nats so disappointing?” articles.
The Halos find themselves in a similar position following their historically awful sweep at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays. The team allowed a mind-numbing 36 runs (on 48 hits) over the weekend, an ignominious franchise record for a three-game series. The Angels were downright terrible in every facet of the game, making six errors in the field, running into at least two outs on the bases, and even walking in two runs on the mound. Had the club decided to just forfeit the whole thing and take a long weekend—conceding to three 9-0 losses—their run differential come Monday (-27) would’ve been just one run worse than it actually was on the weekend (-26).
I wrote in the series preview that the Angels’ only chance of coming away with a win this weekend was to get out of their prolonged slump in clutch situations. They didn’t, of course, going 4-for-16 (.250) with RISP in the series1, but it’s not as though it would’ve helped all that much if they had. Toronto was infuriatingly comfortable at the plate all series no matter who was on the mound. The Jays scored at least one run (inherited or otherwise) against every Angels pitcher on the active roster but Jered Weaver, who was the only guy lucky enough not to pitch this weekend.
At an earlier point in the season, I’d probably propose that Monday’s day off in Detroit would be best spent with a closed-door meeting, some lively pep talks, and perhaps a bonfire or two to get rid of all the bad juju that’s seemingly enveloping the team right now. But with August winding down and the long grind of the season evidently taking it’s toll, I think they might all be better off just barring baseball activities for 24 hours. Everyone can take a day to binge-watch Mr. Robot, get their The Wire fix with David Simon’s latest, or catch up on the latest Internet theories about the fate of Jon Snow—anything, really, so long as it doesn’t involve baseball.
The Angels have now lost 21 of their last 30 games. Miraculously, they still stand within two games of postseason contention. With more than three-fourths of the season complete, it seems safe to conclude this is a .500 team that masqueraded as something more in June and July. But baseball is a fickle sport, and with 38 games left—13 of which are against the Astros or Rangers—one more timely hot streak could still sneak the Halos into playoffs. There’s no guarantee a day away from the game will help the team see that forest for the trees, let alone to start playing well, but it sure as hell can’t hurt.
Boxscore Breakdowns
Game 2: Blue Jays 15, Angels 3
Game 3: Blue Jays 12, Angels 5
Series Takeaways
Mike Trout’s Wrist Isn’t Sapping His Power
A lot has been made of Mike Trout’s August slump and how much his wrist injury might be to blame for his down power numbers. While it’s logical jump to make, especially where swings are concerned, I don’t buy it with Trout.
Average batted-ball velocity:
- Before injury – 93.41 mph
- Since injury – 94.03 mph
Trout has actually hit the ball a smidge harder on average since the injury, which is a pretty good indication that the wrist isn’t sapping his power. The more likely culprit for his current slump, which may or may not involve his wrist, is timing. Trout has struck out in 25.7 percent of his plate appearances since returning to the lineup, and is hitting grounders with nearly 50 percent of his balls in play (vs. ~35% the last two years), indicating that maybe his hands are a little late getting into the zone.
Trout potentially turning in his first sub-.750 OPS month since his first cup of coffee in 2011 is certainly worrisome, but I don’t think it’s anything worth panicking about just yet. Plus, there’s still a week’s worth of games in August for him to go on a tear and pull his numbers up.
Kaleb Cowart Is Only Half Ready
I love the risky gamble the Angels took in calling up Cowart. He’s a massive upgrade defensively over Conor Gillaspie, and the bar to clear offensively over Gillaspie and Taylor Featherston was an extremely low one. And for a guy who’s struggled to find any positives the last two years, it’s hard to beat the confidence boost of getting called up and thrown immediately into an MLB starting lineup.
Still, the timing of the move couldn’t really have been planned any worse so far as Cowart’s success is concerned. As I noted a few weeks back, Cowart is a strong hitter from the left side of the plate but well below average from the right. His platoon split in the minors this year was nearly 400 points of OPS, making him more a nominal switch-hitter than anything. The Angels are no doubt aware of this discrepancy in his two swings, but that didn’t stop them from starting him against southpaws in three of his first four big-league games—one coming against David Price, no less. He didn’t get any hits in those games, of course, and looked absolutely lost at the plate. Thankfully, his last two games have come against righty starters, in which he’s gone 2-for-6 with a walk, a double, and a home run.
With both David Freese and Featherston out, the Angels’ right-handed-hitting options at third are slim to none. (Grant Green, maybe?) So in that sense, it’s not like the club had much of a choice with Cowart once he’d been brought up. Once Freese gets back this week, though, Mike Scioscia would be wise to give Cowart the Hank Conger/Kendrys Morales treatment and keep him far, far away from lefties.
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1 Three of those four hits came in the first inning Sunday. They were 1-for-13 with RISP in the 26 other innings of the series.
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