With Mike Trout entrenched in center field, Kole Calhoun in right, and a premium left fielder still lurking out there in free agency, Angel fans are not to be blamed for entertaining the thought that the Halo outfield corps of 2016 could be the best the franchise has ever assembled.
If Arte Moreno ever decides this offseason to take the plunge on Justin Upton, Yoenis Cespedes, or Alex Gordon, the question quickly becomes: What would it take for this outfield to be the best the Angels have ever had? Over at Baseball-Reference, you can look up how many wins a team’s combined outfielders were worth each season. For the 2015 season that just ended, the 14 (!) outfielders the Angels put on the field combined for 4.7 Wins Above Average—a computation similar to WAR but compares a player to the average major league player at that position in stead of a replacement level player at that position—a total that ranks third best in the American League behind only the Tampa Bay Rays (5.0) and the Kansas City Royals (4.8).
Although it was third best in the AL, thanks to the absolute mess in left field this past season, the 4.7 WAA that group tallied was far from the best that the franchise has to produce. It took a while, of course, for the Angels to possess an elite outfield, but they have had a few over the years.
The best Angel outfield by WAA in the 1960s was the 2.8 WAA the 1968 squad composed mainly of Rick Reichardt, Vic Davalillo, and Roger Repoz totaled. The 1970s were a particularly bad time for Angel outfields as the best one could muster only 1.0 WAA, and that was for the 1972 squad composed mainly of Vada Pinson, Ken Berry, and Leroy Stanton. The 1986 AL West champion Angels outfield had the best WAA of the 1980s (6.0), and that outfield was manned mostly by Brian Downing, Gary Pettis, and the platoon of Ruppert Jones and George Hendrick.
The first truly elite outfield to ever play for the Angels was the one that took the field for the 1995 California Angels. This group worked together to compile a whopping 10.1 WAA. Garret Anderson was the regular left fielder, Jim Edmonds was the center fielder, and Tim Salmon played in right. The fourth outfielder, who filled in 48 times that season, was Tony Phillips.
In the ’00s, the World Series champion 2002 team fielded that decade’s best outfield based on its 7.6 WAA. Anderson was again in left, Darin Erstad played in center, Salmon remained in right, and the fourth outfielder was Orlando Palmeiro.
The franchise’s very best outfield, according to B-Ref’s WAA tally, was the Angels’ 2012 crew. That squad compiled a grand total of 11.6 WAA, led of course by Mike Trout‘s historically absurd rookie season. Somewhat oddly, only Torii Hunter in right field held down a regular position. Mike Trout and Peter Bourjos split time manning center field. Left field playing time was split three ways among Vernon Wells, Mark Trumbo, and Trout. Defensively, having Trout, Bourjos, and Hunter playing the outfield at the same time must have been a pitcher’s dream come true. Though Trout and Hunter are widely marveled at for their defensive wizardry, it was Bourjos who had the second highest Ultimate Zone Rating in the American League that year at 16.3, with Trout (13.3) and Hunter (11.2) close behind.
Offensively, this group was near the top of every significant category. They were fourth in the league in stolen bases with 65 (Tampa Bay’s outfielders led with 83), they were third among the league’s outfielders with 80 home runs (the Yankee outfielders with the advantage of the short porch in right field at their home stadium finished first with 89), and they were second in the league with a .344 on-base percentage. All this despite Vernon Wells posting a .230/.279/.403 line in 77 games.
If the Angels ever make a deal to get a top talent to play left field for them in 2016, could that group challenge the 2012 Angel outfield as the best in franchise history? It could, because Mike Trout can do anything he sets his mind to, but personally I don’t believe that the lone addition of a Yoenis Cespedes or Carlos Gonzalez would be enough to vault the 2016 squad to such great heights. The fourth (and sometimes fifth) outfielder plays a significant role in the numbers a teams’ outfield squad can put together, and the current crop of guys—Daniel Nava, Craig Gentry, Rafael Ortega—don’t inspire the same confidence as a Bourjos or Trumbo. The Angels would need to find a high-end extra outfielder to fill in for all the games the three regulars will be sitting out in order to make a run at the excellence displayed by the performance of the Angels’ 2012 outfield corps.
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