Series Takeaways: Rays Sweep Angels Into Oblivion

It’s technically about four months premature for a eulogy of the 2016 Angels—they’re only five games out with 131 to play, after all—but practically the season ended Friday morning when the news broke that Garrett Richards is out for the year and that Andrew Heaney might be too. Getting swept the Tampa Bay Rays over the weekend, then, was merely confirmation of everything we had reluctantly come to terms with going into it:

The 2016 Angels are not a good team, and that faint glimmer of hope on the horizon is not for a competitive September but rather for C.J. Wilson to be healthy enough to trade come July.

Wilson and handful of other Halos—i.e. Yunel Escobar, Joe Smith, Fernando Salas, Daniel Nava, maybe Kole Calhoun—now have 74 games to prove themselves valuable trade pieces from which the front office can rebuild the organization for 2017 and beyond. The stray wins here and there will still be enjoyable, but knowing that the team is all but guaranteed to approach the August 1 deadline as a seller suddenly shifts rooting interests to resemble those of a fantasy owner: performance of certain individuals far outweigh those of the team. It is a undoubtedly weird position to be in, and one that Angels fans have really yet to experience this century.

There is little joy in rooting for a team to trade its assets away and to play poorly enough to earn a protected pick in the next year’s draft, but it beats the persistent disappointment wrought by false hope. If optimism is what you want, look to 2017. The future is boundless; the present decidedly less so.

Boxscore Breakdowns

Game 1: Rays 5, Angels 2
Game 2: Rays 4, Angels 2
Game 3: Rays 3, Angels 1

Series Takeaways

Joe Smith’s Problem Might Be His New Change-Up

Joe Smith’s 4.50 ERA is not only a run-and-a-half higher than his career mark, it’s also a full run higher than any other reliever in the Angels’ bullpen not named Cory Rasmus. Smith’s velocity, usage, and zone profile are all in line with his 2015 numbers, but his strikeout rate (11.6%) is close to half his career rate and his slider is getting smacked around like a Jered Weaver fastball.

I have nothing to really back this up, but I think the culprit of his struggles might be his newest pitch: the change-up. He threw the pitch early in his career, but shelved it completely for several years before bringing it back this spring. It hasn’t been hit hard the 19 times he’s thrown it this year—two singles in three BIP—but that doesn’t mean it isn’t negatively impacting his performance. Adding a new pitch always brings with it the risk of altering the way one throws his/her other offerings, as it puts different stresses on the arm and potentially messes with muscle memory. I don’t know for sure if this is Smith’s problem, of course, but it couldn’t hurt to scrap the pitch and go back what he had success with in years past. If it ain’t broke…

Mike Morin Is 2014 Mike Morin Again

With two more scoreless appearances over the weekend, Morin has now gone 11 straight outings without allowing a run, playing a huge part of the bullpen’s success over the last two weeks. It seems whatever he did to anger the baseball gods in 2015 is once and for all rectified.

His strikeout rate (20.4%) is down a bit from the year before, but it’s playing up because it’s finally been joined on the positive side of the ledger by his other numbers. His hit rate (5.7), BABIP-against (.200), strand rate (80.3%), and ERA (2.13) are at last representative of how well he’s pitching, and hopefully that’s where they’ll stay.

C.J. Cron Is Hitting Like A 6’4″ David Eckstein

Cron’s been on fire over the last 10 games, going 14-for-29 and even walking three times. The problem is he isn’t the Angels’ starting shortstop, so the 12 singles tallied among those 14 hits still make him a well-below-average first baseman. Among qualified hitters, Cron’s .080 ISO is sandwiched between Omar Infante and Danny Espinosa, who aren’t exactly power dynamos. Among qualified first basemen, Cron is dead last.

Of course, Cron had an equally low ISO (.076) through his first 100 plate appearances last season and still ended up with a .177 mark, so not all is lost. It would be nice, though, if the Angels actually had another power hitter in the middle of their lineup right now, rather than just a guy who looks like one.