Series Takeaways: Rangers Have Halos Seeing Double

The Angels exit their first weekend of 2016 tied for the MLB lead in double plays grounded into. This in itself is not remarkable, as most teams are within one or two of each other in every counting stat after the season’s opening week. Except that, well, the Angels entered the weekend having grounded into zero double plays.

In a four-game span, then, they went from zero to eight. Eight! That’s one on each Thursday and Friday, then three in both Saturday and Sunday’s games. If you’re looking for a simple reason why the team went just 5-for-32 (.156) with runners in scoring position over the long weekend, that stat goes a long way to explaining it. More generally, the problem is that through six games the Angels’ groundball rate (54.5%) is second only to the Royals’. This would be fine if the roster was built anything like Kansas City’s, but instead there’s Albert Pujols, Yunel Escobar, C.J. Cron, Carlos Perez, Geovany Soto, et al., none of whom (sans Trout) will beat anyone in a foot race and all of whom are hitting .141 collectively on ground balls.

With this in mind, it becomes something of a miracle the Halos even have two wins to show for all their wood chopping. A 2–4 start isn’t what any fan wants for her or his team, but it’s not the worst thing given the circumstances. Battling the Rangers to a series draw now, while playing terrible baseball, could end up being huge come September. Just thinking about the potential ramifications gives Adrian Beltre the jitters:

Boxscore Breakdowns

Game 1: Angels 4, Rangers 3 | Game 2: Rangers 7, Angels 3

Game 3: Rangers 4, Angels 1 | Game 4: Angels 3, Rangers 1

Takeaways

Wherefore Art Thou, Dingers?

This goes in tandem with the whole ground-ball problem referenced above. If you don’t hit the ball in the air, you’re not going to hit it out of the park. It’s science.

Players who currently have as many or more home runs than the Angels have as a team: Jake Arrieta, Kenta Maeda, Freddy Galvis, Josh Thole, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Ehire Adrianza, Chris Stewart, Jeremy Hazelbaker, Brock Holt, Scooter Gennett, and 124 others. Players who currently have seven times as many home runs as the Angels: Trevor Story. The Angels have only one stinking home run, is what I’m saying.

It’s not just home runs either. The Angels are currently last in extra-base hits, with eight. Oh my goodness I just realized they have as many extra-base hits as they have GIDPs. Kill it with fire.

Cron Might Need to Swap Spots With Calhoun

For the second year in a row, C.J. Cron is off to a painfully slow start. Cron is 2-for-22 with zero walks, five strikeouts, and zero RBI through the first six games. Not exactly the run production a team wants out of its No. 5 hitter. Kole Calhoun, meanwhile, while batting one spot behind Cron, is 6-for-18 with three walks and an RBI. Calhoun doesn’t have the same power potential as Cron, but so long as the big guy is flailing around in the batter’s box it will serve the team better to give Calhoun more ABs.

If Cron continues to struggle, the Angels might want to start thinking about whether Yunel Escobar can start trading off games at first and DH with Albert Pujols, opening the door for Kaleb Cowart‘s superior defense at third.

Weaver is Still Awesome in Day Games at Home

With his six innings of one-run ball Sunday afternoon, Jered Weaver improved his career line at home to 74–30 with a 2.66 ERA in 141 starts, and his career line in home day games to 17–5 with a 1.76 ERA in 28 starts. It’s impossible to overstate how good Weaver has been in home day games: 22 of his 28 outings have been quality starts; he’s allowed more than three earned runs only once; two of his losses were 1-0 games; and he has a 4:1 K/BB and 0.47 HR/9.

If it weren’t such a scheduling nightmare, I’m sure the Angels would absolutely make sure Weaver started the remaining 12 home day games. Heck, maybe they could just make him their Sunday starter every week, so that’s he’s guaranteed a day game no matter where they’re playing.