The 2018 campaign for the Angels started long before spring training when to make sure that Mike Trout did not remain disappointed by those around him the front office led by general manager Billy Epler has added famous names such as: Ian Kinsler, Justin Upton, Zack Cozart and Shoei Othani. After a spring training a little undertone many skeptics were already depicting them as one of the great disappointments of the season that was starting shortly thereafter, unfortunately for them they were wrong because since the opening day the team led by Mike Trout has held a record in positive even if due to some injury and a subdued performance of some players are moving away from the leadership of a division, the AL West that is among the most competitive of the entire MLB.
The offensive trend is average in almost all categories except in the homerun where they rank fifth in the MLB, a figure strongly influenced by Mike Trout and his 24 homerun and it is here that goes up the criticism to his teammates as with a player like this you should score more points on average and have a higher OBP. The defendants for these statistics a little disappointing as well as the inofrtunio that for more than a month keeps Othani in the pits are: Calhoun, Cozart, Kinsler and Valbuena. The first is experiencing the worst season of his career at the plate beating only .168 while the new purchases brought to LA to have someone in the first two positions of the lineup able to go consistently to provide Pujols and Trout with more RBI chances they are failing miserably also beating them around here .200. To be praised is Simmons who is known as an excellent defender and a dubious beater, this year he is beating more than .300 providing consistency to a lineup that is in great need of it. Also catcher Martin Maldonado has improved to the batting plate by beating over .300 with the riders in the point position and this is what gave the Angels an extra gear in the lower part of the lineup. As for pitching stuff it's going even better than expected with an ERA of 3.90 and what about the starters is positive and in my opinion better than expected, the problems for the red franchise in Los Angeles come when it comes to bullpen and in particular of the lost salvations (15 out of 35), a fairly worrying figure for a team that would like to arrive at the postseason. In fact there is no real closer, Blake Parker is disappointed and can not find the command of the fastball or splitter that had allowed him to finish well the previous season, even Bedrosian not really a security, while Middleton has shown with an ERA of 2.04 to be a valid alternative to the first two. Fortunately for the Angels Othani's injury was less severe than expected and did not have to resort to the infamous Tommy John surgery who would keep out of the playing fields until the Japanese 2020, in fact he returned in the lineup yesterday against the Mariners and even if he failed to beat a good it was a very important return that can not do anything but improve the Angels in apparent difficulty. The way to the playoffs after this 2-8 record in the last 10 games I see it VERY uphill as Los Angeles in the division is 12.5 races behind a battleship like Houston that will hardly drop the pace, behind Houston half race there are some excellent Mariners that must be overcome by force if you want to hope for the Wild Card, a Wild Card that will not take in the American League with less than 93-94 victories in my opinion and I can say that one of the two places will go to the loser of the duel between Yankees and Red Sox. It 's true that there is still almost half a season to play but this year the American League is a conference that does not forgive negative stripes given the high pace that is in the lead and the only way for the A-Team of landing at the playoffs is to increase the average batting and OBP and fix the bullpen with a good closer (hard to find now) and a left-handed. If this campaign should turn into a failure for the Angels, the question that many are asking is: Is Trout now asking for a trade so as not to waste its best years in a "losing" team? If you look at the efforts of the front office I would say that they are putting all then if the players who until a year ago were a certainty as Kinsler stop producing the same figures there can do very little but it is also true that if you earn millions to take dterminate decisions and these for one reason or another become failures become an easy target. However, the Angels in the offseason will have to work hard and provide additional security to Trout not easy considering the wage situation very heavy and difficult to solve shortly, who knows that this winter will not give us some surprise for what concerns the best player in the world...
The offensive trend is average in almost all categories except in the homerun where they rank fifth in the MLB, a figure strongly influenced by Mike Trout and his 24 homerun and it is here that goes up the criticism to his teammates as with a player like this you should score more points on average and have a higher OBP. The defendants for these statistics a little disappointing as well as the inofrtunio that for more than a month keeps Othani in the pits are: Calhoun, Cozart, Kinsler and Valbuena. The first is experiencing the worst season of his career at the plate beating only .168 while the new purchases brought to LA to have someone in the first two positions of the lineup able to go consistently to provide Pujols and Trout with more RBI chances they are failing miserably also beating them around here .200. To be praised is Simmons who is known as an excellent defender and a dubious beater, this year he is beating more than .300 providing consistency to a lineup that is in great need of it. Also catcher Martin Maldonado has improved to the batting plate by beating over .300 with the riders in the point position and this is what gave the Angels an extra gear in the lower part of the lineup. As for pitching stuff it's going even better than expected with an ERA of 3.90 and what about the starters is positive and in my opinion better than expected, the problems for the red franchise in Los Angeles come when it comes to bullpen and in particular of the lost salvations (15 out of 35), a fairly worrying figure for a team that would like to arrive at the postseason. In fact there is no real closer, Blake Parker is disappointed and can not find the command of the fastball or splitter that had allowed him to finish well the previous season, even Bedrosian not really a security, while Middleton has shown with an ERA of 2.04 to be a valid alternative to the first two. Fortunately for the Angels Othani's injury was less severe than expected and did not have to resort to the infamous Tommy John surgery who would keep out of the playing fields until the Japanese 2020, in fact he returned in the lineup yesterday against the Mariners and even if he failed to beat a good it was a very important return that can not do anything but improve the Angels in apparent difficulty. The way to the playoffs after this 2-8 record in the last 10 games I see it VERY uphill as Los Angeles in the division is 12.5 races behind a battleship like Houston that will hardly drop the pace, behind Houston half race there are some excellent Mariners that must be overcome by force if you want to hope for the Wild Card, a Wild Card that will not take in the American League with less than 93-94 victories in my opinion and I can say that one of the two places will go to the loser of the duel between Yankees and Red Sox. It 's true that there is still almost half a season to play but this year the American League is a conference that does not forgive negative stripes given the high pace that is in the lead and the only way for the A-Team of landing at the playoffs is to increase the average batting and OBP and fix the bullpen with a good closer (hard to find now) and a left-handed. If this campaign should turn into a failure for the Angels, the question that many are asking is: Is Trout now asking for a trade so as not to waste its best years in a "losing" team? If you look at the efforts of the front office I would say that they are putting all then if the players who until a year ago were a certainty as Kinsler stop producing the same figures there can do very little but it is also true that if you earn millions to take dterminate decisions and these for one reason or another become failures become an easy target. However, the Angels in the offseason will have to work hard and provide additional security to Trout not easy considering the wage situation very heavy and difficult to solve shortly, who knows that this winter will not give us some surprise for what concerns the best player in the world...
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