Well that sucked. The Angels were downright awful over the weekend in New York, getting swept for the third time this season and dropping back under .500 for the seventh time. Their losing streak now sits at five, as they sit behind both the Astros and Rangers in the standings. It was difficult to imagine any series would approach the disaster of the early-season sweep at the hands of the Royals, but this one eclipsed it in spades. The streaky Yankees dominated the Halos in every facet of the game save for one weird inning, exposing just how bad things could get for them this year if the club is unable to find its footing.
In the first month and a half of the season, the constant struggles of the offense were offset by strong starting pitching and a mostly reliable bullpen. Now, though, the offense continues to struggle and the starting pitching is abysmal, making things that much more difficult for the front office should they want to bolster the roster midseason. For a while it looked like the Angels could afford to part with someone like Hector Santiago in exchange for offensive help because they had the pitching depth to numb the sting of his departure. Now I’m not so sure.
That one day off last Thursday obviously didn’t do the team any good. Maybe their second in five days will have a more positive effect. It better, because things look pretty bleak at the moment.
Boxscore Breakdowns
Series Takeaways
1) #FreeAndrewHeaney
As noted above, the Angels rotation has been atrocious of late. Over the last five games, the quartet of Wilson, Weaver, Santiago, and Richards have combined to allow 29 runs in 24⅓ miserable innings, good for a 10.73 ERA. Even worse, the team went out of its way to avoid pitching Matt Shoemaker in homer-friendly Yankee Stadium over the weekend and its starters still managed to surrender seven dingers in three games—to renowned power hitters like Stephen Drew and Jose Pirela, no less.
If the Halos want to stop this spiral they’re headed down, it seems about time to inject new life into the clubhouse. The team might not have anyone on the farm to spark the offense, but it does have at least one guy who could reverse their fortunes on the mound: Andrew Heaney.
A quick glance at Heaney’s numbers in Salt Lake City—3.73 ERA in 11 starts—might lead one to believe he isn’t ready for the show. But a closer look reveals he’s pitching a helluva lot better than his earned-run average might suggest. First and foremost, a 3.73 ERA in the PCL is more than half a run lower than league average (4.37) and more than a full run lower than his team’s collective mark (5.12). Second, his ERA is being unfairly inflated by a .351 BABIP against. If you buy that his solid peripheral numbers—0.3 HR/9, 2.4 BB/9, 8.6 K/9—are more indicative of how he’s pitching than some unsustainable ball-in-play numbers, then Heaney suddenly looks more than ready for a promotion to Anaheim.
No, there isn’t technically an open spot in the rotation right now. But is there really anyone other than Hector Santiago who’s pitched well enough on a consistent basis to warrant a start every fifth day? I don’t think so. And any sort of service-time concerns related to Heaney should be moot. By keeping him in the minors beyond June 3, the Angels have guaranteed he’ll be under team control through at least 2021, a la Kris Bryant.
In sum, #FreeAndrewHeaney. He can’t possibly be any worse than what they’ve got, and the upside is huge.
2) Kole Calhoun Batting Cleanup Isn’t Working
I was a big fan of putting Calhoun in the cleanup spot when Mike Scioscia initially made the change, but it just doesn’t seem to be working out. Since moving out of the leadoff spot on May 18, Calhoun is batting just .203/.277/.311 with two home runs in 84 plate appearances.
I don’t typically ascribe to the idea that moving a hitter around in the lineup can negatively affect his performance, but it’s hard to imagine two spots in the batting order more diametrically opposed than leadoff and cleanup, especially on the Angels. I’ll buy that some of Calhoun’s struggles are simply small-sample shenanigans, but not all of it.
The whole “lineup protection” thing is a bunch hooey about 99.9% of the time, but that other 0.1% of the time involves hitting in front of Mike Trout. In 639 plate appearances as a leadoff hitter—i.e. ahead of Trout—Calhoun is a .292/.344/.488 hitter. In 372 plate appearances in the other eight lineup spots—i.e. not ahead of Trout—Calhoun is a .232/.303/.335 hitter. I’m not saying Trout is the only reason Calhoun’s been good the last two years, just that Calhoun’s obviously more comfortable with the way pitchers go after him when Trout is on deck. Moving him back to the head of the lineup would probably be the best thing for him, and would have the added bonus of dropping Aybar and his swing-happy approach to a place in the order more conducive to that sort of thing. Like, anywhere but leading off.
3) C.J. Cron Still Isn’t The Answer
When the Seattle Mariners designated Justin Ruggiano for assignment last Thursday, I was hopeful that the Angels would take a flyer on him. He’s not a great fielder and he can’t hit right-handed pitching to save his life, but he’s still a better righty bench option than C.J. Cron.
Cron made his way to the Halos this weekend after tearing up the Pacific Coast League (1.007 OPS) for two weeks, and predictably went 0-for-7 in his return. No matter how badly Cron beats on PCL pitching, it won’t translate to Anaheim unless he fixes the massive hole in his approach. He might be able to get away with swinging at everything under the sun when he’s facing guys who can’t help but groove a fastball every now and again, but that simply won’t work against MLB arms.
Among hitters with at least 100 plate appearances on the season, C.J. Cron’s 42.4% swing rate on pitches out of the zone is the 11th worst in baseball. That doesn’t sound so bad, until you realize that none of the 10 guys ahead of Cron have made contact on those bad pitches as much as he has (77.2%), and that none has a lower swing rate (66.9%) on pitches in the zone than Cron. The issue here then isn’t that he’s swinging and missing at bad pitches an inordinate amount of time, like Josh Hamilton, it’s that he’s making contact with too many pitches he can’t drive while not swinging at too many pitches he can. Simply put, he sucks at recognizes pitches.
Also, I don’t know what kind of pitch mix Cron was seeing in Salt Lake, but I feel confident saying that it wasn’t more than 40% offspeed offerings, which is what he’s getting in the big leagues this year. And the more time he’s in Anaheim, the more that percentage is going to go up.
For all the negative words I’ve written here, I really do want Cron to succeed. I would love it if he could become Mark Trumbo 2.0. But the way things are going, I just don’t see it happening without a wholesale change in his approach. I hope he proves me wrong.
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