Monkeying around with the most important Angels road trip of the year

The Angels are a mess. They have been an embarrassment on the road since the All-Star break going 1-12. They then embarrassed themselves again in their last homestand, losing four in a row and setting franchise records for how badly they got their butt whipped by the Jays. Now they get the privilege of going back on the road for a nine-game roadie with their playoff chances hanging in the balance. It is the most important Angels road trip of the year and I just can’t form coherent thoughts about this team anymore, so it is time to dust off the old Monkeying Around segment and dive into some random thoughts about the current state of the Angels.

• I don’t want to put too much pressure on the Angels to do well in this series, but, yeah, they really need to do well in this series. Not only do they need to prove that they can win on the road, but they need to take advantage of playing nine games against three sub-.500 teams. If there is one thing the Angels have shown they can do this year it is beat up on bad teams.
• Adding to the pressure is the fact that the Angels have to take on the Rangers, Dodgers and Astros after this road trip. Remember who the Angels were facing when lost eight of nine and sparked this massive slump? The Rangers, Dodgers and Astros! 🎶 The circle of life! 🎶
• There’s never been much love for David Freese, but who would’ve thought that the Angels would miss him this much? Here are the wRC+ numbers for all the hot corner fill-ins in August: Conor Gillaspie (29), Kaleb Cowart (26), Taylor Featherston (18) and Ryan Jackson (-47). But at least Gillaspie was also a defensive disaster. That’s a combined barftastic 20 wRC+ for those four. There is still potential in Cowart and Kyle Kubitza, but is anyone not feeling so great about Freese leaving in free agency now? Sometimes league average is perfectly acceptable.
• Speaking of league average, the Angels left fielders still can’t seem to muster that. David Murphy has a 101 wRC+ since he joined, but most of that has come in the DH role. In the time that he, Shane Victorino and David DeJesus have actually spent in left field, they’ve combined for a wRC+ of 69 (nice). Suddenly I understand how Matt Joyce has avoided the DFA ax. These are dark times people.
• If there is one thing the Angels have going for them on this road trip it is that not only are these teams bad teams, but they are all bad at home too. The stars are perfectly aligned for the Angels to go something like 7-2 on this trip, which is why they will almost assuredly go 2-7.
• Just how bad have the Angels been during this 9-20 stretch? They started with a +61 run differential. They are now at -2. They also were at an 89% playoff odds according to Baseball Prospectus before the losing began. They are now at 23.8%. FML.
• By the way, the A’s run differential is now at +17, so they may not be total pushovers despite what their record says. In fact, the A’s, Tigers and Indians are all projected to basically be .500 ballclubs the rest of the way, so even though they have bad records, they aren’t actually all that bad, even after gutting their teams via trade. In other words, that 2-7 is looking more and more likely.
• For what it is worth, Fangraphs projects the Angels to go 20-18 the rest of the way. Amazingly, that would actually tie them with Texas for the final Wild Card spot. If the Halos some how make the playoffs with something like 84 wins, that would totally make up for the 2012 season when they had 89 wins and somehow missed the playoffs. I’m still convinced that 2012 team would’ve made some real noise in the postseason… you know, if they had qualified. Sigh.
• The Angels tried to get Chase Utley and whiffed, but I’m wondering if they won’t swing at least one more small deal in the next few days. The team has been turning over the bottom of the roster like crazy to spark the team, so maybe they can swing one more small deal to bolster the bullpen or find another infielder to help out at second or maybe just a “chemistry” guy who can come in and be a cheerleader. I doubt it happens, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if it did happen.