April, Much Cooler than March for Halos

The Angels torched the Cactus League last month, posting a team OPS over .900 en route to winning the exhibition season title. The team, though, has lost its Tempe mojo and has struggled through the first eight games of 2009, inciting debate within the fan base as to who should be playing and where. There is even some evidence of panic amongst the faithful.

While it would have been nice to see the Angels sprint from the gate and get off to a fast start, the circumstances under which they’ve played have certainly been (a) cause for their shortcomings.

For those of you who have your index finger hovering over the panic button, awaiting one more poor at-bat by Erick Aybar or one more walk by Kevin Jepsen, before you press it and declare “season over,” take a peek back at some of the lousy stretches in 2008, which saw the Angels win 100 games for the first time in franchise history.

From April 4-12, the Angels went 3-5.

From May 7-17, the best regular season team in Angels’ history went 3-7.

From June 8-16, the AL West champs went just 3-5.

From August 13-22, the team with the best record in all of baseball went a dismal 2-7.

Hopefully the Angels can get things moving in the right direction with a solid performance and salvage a game in Seattle tonight. If they do, don’t put your panic button in storage. They Angels are certain to give you many more opportunities to consider pushing it.