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| Trout leading Angels to a big season. Photo Credit: Alex Gallardo/AP |
The Angels have been one of baseball’s best teams in recent months thanks to a number of factors that have been working in their favor. Lets take an inside look at this red hot team from the left coast and see what makes this club so consistent and high performing.
By: Michael Hanley
The postseason results will be the only barometer this team gets judged by when all is said in done but if you were the team having to face them in a playoff series, all the talent and weapons they have to throw at opponents is staggering to think about and will give an opposing manager fits as to how to navigate through all that. The Angels are here to stay and are on course to make a lot of noise come October.
Los Angeles has one of the best lineups in all of baseball. You look at their lineup one through nine, it gives opposing pitchers nightmares just thinking about how they can possibly get through a turn through that order without suffering some type of damage on the scoreboard.
The top of the order features a great table setter for the power bats that follow them. Kole Calhoun has done a tremendous job getting the Angels offense off to great starts with his ability to hit the ball to all fields. Not necessarily a player with allot of power in his bat, but that is not a requirement for him to have under Manager Mike Scioscia. As long as he finds a way on base via a hit or walk, he is doing his job just fine, which so far this season he has done to a T.
Calhoun is batting .280 with 11 home runs and 32 RBIs, very impressive numbers to say the least for the right fielder. He also fields his position in right field at a high level, not making any rela terrible gaffes with balls hit right at him. All and all, Calhoun is giving the Angels everything and then some of what they expected out of him coming into this season.
Then the power bats come behind and boy do they pack a punch. The trio of Albert Pujols, Josh Hamilton and Mike Trout have given opponents a lot of headaches and long nights with their ability to generate instant offense off of them.
Mike Trout is having an MVP like season so far. His numbers speak for themselves, batting .320, slugging 25 home runs and 81 RBIs so far this season. He has shown the ability to not only be able to power balls out of the stadium but also been able to hit balls out of the strike zone and muscle them into all fields for singles and doubles, which add up quickly over the course of a season.
So the idea that maybe pitches could get him to fish for a bad pitch and he will get himself out is not very true at all. Trout has solid knowledge of the strike zone and works deep counts, which gives him ample opportunity to see the full arsenal of pitches an opponent will throw at him. No what what new ways pitchers try to get Trout out, he will more than likely trump their efforts and send them back to the drawing board.
Albert Pujols may not have quite the power he once had with the Cardinals, but he is still more than getting the job done for this Angels team. He has rebounded from the disappointing season, by his standards, he experienced last season. Pujols is back to being a hitter that is an RBI machine, which is stated in his RBI total this season which is at 70 so far, a player who can be counted on to deliver those big hits in key situations.
Almost more impressive in a way is his low strikeout total. In an era that is filled with hitters of all kind striking out at least 100 times a season, even more depending on the player, Pujols’ 47 strikeouts on the season seems almost unreal. The plate coverage and eye he has for the strike zone is nearly unmatched and has been that way for most of his career. It seems like when he does not find a pitch he feels he can drive out for a home run or a simple base hit, he has the keen skills to be patient and turn his at bat into a walk. Pujols will continue to be a thorn in the side of many more pitchers this season.
Josh Hamilton has not played like the power hitter we all grew to know from his Texas Rangers days but he still is a bat that a pitcher must take seriously. A number of injuries have unfortunately slowed him down in his recent tenure with the Angels, only adding to the frustration for him. He has hit a career low 8 home runs this season and tallied 35 RBIs but he has been able to carve out his niche with this club and be a contributor to their overall success. With the opportunity to play behind Trout and Pujols their is no question that the opportunities for him to generate more consistent offense will be there for him to take advantage going forward.
The starting rotation has been a solid strength for Los Angeles to rely on in more recent months. They started off a little sluggish, as did the rest of the team at the start of the season, but have come along way from April’s swoon. Garrett Richards and Jered Weaver have been a great 1-2 punch at the top of their rotation, both establishing a solid tone for the rest of the pitching staff.
Both Richards and Weaver boast 12 wins so far this season and have been able to put the team in great situations to win games in almost everyone of their starts. Now no one would qualify them as aces per say but they have been able to get batters out in their own individual ways, being just as effective and sharp as possibly can be.
C.J Wilson, Hector Santiago, Tyler Skaggs and Matt Shoemaker have been more uneven than any of them would have like to have been but have provided enough bright spots to help the club continue its hot play in these summer months.
Also, knowing that they have a powerful lineup playing with them, they did not have to be perfect every start. If they do happen to give up a few runs on one night, they can be confident knowing the lineup will be there to pick them up. The questions of can they keep up this pace into the postseason but for now they are getting the job done.
Now the bullpen, which just a few months ago was looked upon as a weakness of this team. Not anymore with the additions they have made to that group and the overall jump in performance by them. The additions of Huston Street and Jason Grilli have sealed the complete transformation of the bullpen and have made it become a big strength of the team. To go along with Joe Smith and Kevin Jepsen, Street and Grilli have come in and been nearly unhittable, especially Street since they came to Anaheim.
What makes this bullpen so unique and effective i sthe variety of pictures they have to go to late in games. Hitters from the opposition have to adjust from seeing a submarine thrower in Smith to a power pitcher in Jepsen which can throw hitters completely off their game. And to now have Grilli and Street at the end of the bullpen to hold down and finish off games is a luxury that Scioscia gets to have in his back pocket and use anyway he sees fit.
The postseason results will be the only barometer this team gets judged by when all is said in done but if you were the team having to face them in a playoff series, all the talent and weapons they have to throw at opponents is staggering to think about and will give an opposing manager fits as to how to navigate through all that. The Angels are here to stay and are on course to make a lot of noise come October.
